A Confederates Chronicle
by Morse333
Summary: This is the story of Varrin Torrik, a soldier who fought for the Confederacy of Independent Systems, who kept fighting with the Separatist Holdouts. He is not a great hero, a Jedi, or anyone that made a difference in history. He's just a man with a story who clings to the hope that Separatist dream will one day become reality.
1. A Confederates Introduction

_I'm not a droid, and I'm most certainly not a clone. I'm not a Sith or Jedi. I'm not some crazed ideologue, corrupt politician, or wealthy corporate businessman. I'm not a Neimoidian, Geonosian, or a Muun._

_But here are some things that I am. I am human, and I was born on Chandrilla, but raised on Serenno. I lived in a lot of places of throughout my life. I've been to Coruscant, and I've been the furthest places from there. I am not as strong as I used to be, but I'm still pretty handy with a blaster, a rocket tube, and I'm decent at the controls of a starship. And if I was asked if there was a single word that described me, it be simply this, Confederate._

_Not "Separatist" that the people on the core worlds like to say, and most certainly not traitor as the Empire likes to call me. I have the "Blue Hexagon" tattooed on me, and I'm not having it taken off._

_I'm not crazy, and I'm not broken._

_I fought with the droids, and just about every species that ever walked, against the "one faced army" of the Republic on the solid rock of ground, to the cold depths of space. And even after they slaughtered every leader, hero, and champion of the great CIS, I and many others still held up the banner._

_They can call me mad for my support of Dooku's message, even after his death. They can call me a monster for the amount of beings that are no longer breathing._

_But I'm not someone you've ever heard, nor am I anyone worth hearing about. I'm not a great hero of the victors, I'm not a skilled mercenary who happened to be on the right side of history, and I'm definitely not someone who they'll mention in a documentary on the Holo-Net._

_In spite of all that, I fought the Grand Army of the Republic from the first days, all the way to the moment the droids all stopped marching, and kept fighting even when the Empire said the war was over._

_I'm just a man who wants people to know what his purpose was for living._

_I am Varrin Torrik, and I am a Confederate._


	2. The Strangest Week

_"By far the strangest week I ever had was the week the droids fell and the clones killed the Jedi. I'm not saying it was the hardest, because I had far worse. But it was easily the strangest one I've ever had just in terms of the things I saw and heard."_ – Varrin Torrik

**- Time on Mygeeto – 24 days**

**- Time Till Droid Shut Down – 19 hours**

"I swear I saw a Jedi out there!" yelled Fitz Thul. He had a panicked look on his face as he rubbed his hand through his brown hair, and then wiping some of the sweat off his face

The others rolled they're eyes at just how unlikely that was. This wasn't the first time that Fitz had "cried aklay" and swore that there was a Jedi out there.

"We're too far back for you to have seen anything." Crevil Tala replied looking through the scope of his sniper rifle. The man looked over the area ahead of them through his long blaster. There were a few AATs hovering just beyond the building they were on, and a cluster of about fifty mixed B1 and B2 battle droids between them. On the other side there were a dozen white armored clones of the Galactic Republic, taking cover and sending a barrage of blue back at them.

THOO!

A red blast came from Crevil's long blaster and soared down at them. It smacked a piece of rubble rather then its target.

"Shavit!" Crevil cursed. "They always move right at the last second!"

"Maybe if you learned how to correct your targeting rather then yelling every time you miss you wouldn't have that problem." Nik Antares suggested. He was the oldest one there, being in his fifties. He of course didn't have a weapon that could reach where the clones were. He was instead looking them over with a set of binoculars.

"Hey I may miss a lot." Crevil returned. "But at least only hit the GARs," he said using the phonetic abbreviation of Grand Army of the Republic, which was a common phrase for Separatist soldiers. "Rather then hitting the droids every other shot." Crevil mocked.

"That was one time." Varrin said, finally chiming in. It wasn't like him to stay quiet in a conversation like that long. "And Nik did nab up a bunch of Reps with it as I recall." Varrin finished, turning then to a B1 battledroid that was just beside him. "Fifty Five." Varrin said calling his nickname

The droid immediately looked over at him. "Yes sir?" The droid came to attention in his high pitched monotone. His full designation was 3R-1355, but Varrin had found it easier just to call him by the last to digits.

"Reload this quick." Varrin ordered, tossing him the large E-60R missile launcher that had been swung over his shoulder a moment earlier. He then moved a bit further forward with his E-5 Blaster rifle, the standard weapon of the B1 battledroids, and fired towards where the clones were.

"You're not gonna hit anything." Nik told Varrin. "Especially not with that piece a druk." He commented on Varrin's love of the E-5 blaster rifle and all the other standard issue weapons used by the B1s. It wasn't the first time he mentioned that, really it came up all the time. But Varrin still used them.

Varrin looked back at Nik, and rubbed his forehead with the sleeve of his dark blue uniform.

"Haven't you ever heard of suppressing fire?" Varrin asked, then standing back up to look at 55.

55 had just finished loading the Missile launcher and was turning to face Varrin. The droid made the weapon look light, but really it was fairly heavy for a human.

"Besides." Varrin responded. "If it's good enough for the droids," He hefted the black E-60R over his shoulder and walked back over towards the edge of the building with a smile. "It's good enough for me."

Varrin looked out over the street through the target finder on the side of the launcher. He zoomed as far as he could, and the targeting unit locked onto the destroyed shell of a speeder that he could see two clones hiding behind.

"Heads down." Varrin smiled snidely.

FWOOSH!

The missile tore from the tube over Varrin's shoulder

From the large round building the small group had taken positions in, the missile soared out, a purple flame coming from the back. It flew over the battlefield in seconds and engulfed the destroyed speeder with flame and smoke.

Through the scope on his sniper rifle Crevil could see the body of the two clones get thrown backwards, their armor completely scorched. "Nice shot Varrin." He congratulated, still looking for a new target.

"Thank you, Thank you." Varrin bowed as though he had just done some amazing feat on a stage for a crowd of people who were applauding him.

PEEEEEEW!

"Frowlin' Heck!" Varrin yelled ducking as blue blaster bolt from what they recognized as a sniper beam soared just over his head and hit the ceiling.

If 55 could smile he would have, but he could only do so on the inside he did. "Looks like your show boating saved your life, sir." The joke one of a few he could have made, but it was enough of a commentary.

"Shut up! That one nearly took my head off!" Varrin spat back towards 55's bad joke.

"Yeah, and I'll bet that some clone sniper down there's yelling 'they always move at the last second." Nik mocked on the conversation they were having earlier.

Making a crude symbol with his left hand at Nik, Crevil remained looking through the scope. "That's for you Nik, free of charge." He remarked about his hand signal.

Being nearly hit by sniper fire was not something new to the squad of organics that were holding their position in the building. It was almost a daily thing, and so they hardly batted and eyelash at it. It was different for the person it almost hit, but they always shrugged it off. When one of them was actually hit it was a different story, but for the moment, nobody was wounded.

They were sitting on the fifteenth floor of a large building that was at the end of a long street. The Confederates had set up a defensive position a few miles behind them, and were moving troops forward against the Republic. However they came across a group of clones right on the street and a skirmish ensued.

Looking at numbers and equipment it seemed the CIS should have no problems winning. But as always the clones were very resourceful and had managed to hold them where they were for an hour. There was no telling how many of the clones there were, and it seemed like they had some reinforcements that were behind them. Still the droids pressed forward against them.

The small group that was in the building had been with them at the front during the initial outbreak of the shooting, but withdrew to the building because their lives were worth a bit more then the droids, primarily because they had lives to begin with.

"I'm telling you guys though, I saw a Jedi!" Fitz chimed back in with his raving about the Jedi. "He had a green lightsaber and the robes and everything!"

"Fitz, I'm gonna smack you upside your head if you keep screaming about Jedi!" Nik yelled back at the young man who was off in the corner holding a blaster rifle.

"No, really! I did!" Fitz jabbered on.

"If there was a Jedi out there Fitz, I think I'd have seen him by now." Nik commented, while still looking around with his binoculars. "It's not like they don't stand out."

"Also we're not running away." Varrin pointed out loading another missile into the E-60R with 55's help. "If there was a Jedi out there we'd do what we did that last time, and the time before that… get the hell outa here."

"Exxxxactly." Nik agreed, still looking over the battlefield trying to find reinforcements.

They knew better then to try to fight a Jedi. They'd seen their fair share, and even the younger ones were more then they could handle. Jedi usually spelled defeat, and so they knew to get away quickly if they saw one.

"Re'ro uh go! Gal' ov urak!" Golgok, an Aqualish soldier that had remained quiet off on the other side of the floor they were on, declared that he thought he'd seen the Jedi too.

"Shut up Gol." Nik yelled. "Fitz' just got you scared."

Suddenly there was a large explosion down on the Confederate line. The visual of a pair of V-wing Starfighters made the entire groups stomachs sink. A small cluster of proton bombs exploded across the center of the droid line at the middle, severely damaging the tanks they had, and tearing the line up pretty bad.

"Oh crap." Crevil said, realizing that they would probably have to pull back soon.

Nik brought his binoculars down and looked over at Varrin. "I thought we had air superiority in this district?" He asked confused by the information they'd received earlier.

Varrin looked out over the battlefield, and then up to the sky looking where the V-wings had flown. "No, see, we do." He pointed at a squadron of six Droid Tri-Fighters which were racing towards the escaping V-wings. "Doesn't mean they don't get a few shots in now and again." Varrin explained.

Nik still had a confused look on his face. "Well if we have fighters in the air why aren't we callin…" he stopped as he was cut off by Fitz.

"THERE, THERE!" Fitz screamed "THERE HE IS, SEE!" he yelled and pointed as the image of a human in a dark brown robe and a green lightsaber in his hand came into view.

"Well I'll be damned." Crevil replied. "He wasn't lying this time."

They all watched as the droids were devastated and confused. They weren't firing on him really, and the Jedi had just seemed to appear from out of no where. It was only the ignition of the green energy blade that got their attention.

"Alright, well that's our que." Nik sighed. "Get the gear rolled up and…" Nik stopped once more as he was cut off.

"Wo! What are they doing!?" Crevil yelled, baffled by what he was seeing through his scope.

The entire group looked out across the battlefield to see the most baffling sight they had ever seen.

The clone troopers, who had previously been meticulously taking cover, and firing on the droids with perfect strategy, were no longer firing on the droids. The light, tactful suppressing fire that had once been was over taken by an unending stream of heavy blue beams that were focused all on one target, a target much closer. The Jedi.

The Jedi appeared to struggle to defend himself, and he deflected a number of the blasts, but only one actually hit one of his attackers. He was struck by one of the bolts and seemed to turn and run. But the firing didn't stop and the barrage from the clone weapons began to hit his back, and the Jedi was tossed to the ground, rolled over, and didn't move.

The Confederate squad in the building was stunned beyond words. They all were completely shocked. Eyes wide, and jaws to the floor, they tried to make sense of what just happened.

"Did… did they just…" Varrin stammered pointing out with his right index finger.

"Kill that Jedi!?" 55 finished Varrin's question, in an equal amount of shock.

"It can't be! There's no way!" Nik yelled.

"He aint movin'!" Crevil continued the chorus. "He's dead! They killed him!"

The group was still in awe of what they had seen and tried desperately to put the pieces together in their head. It didn't make any sense to them, and how could it? They just saw the image they hated and feared get struck down by another image of what they hated and feared. It was all too much for them to handle.

The dead Jedi captivated all of them and they just remained staring at him still not sure of what to do. Only did part of their attention get moved to the visual of more clones approaching, and seeing them now charging forward.

"W-w-w-w" Nik sounded out "W"s and didn't make much noise. Suddenly he came to his senses. "Doesn't matter! It doesn't matter!" Nik echoed. His hands dropped the binoculars and he picked up his blaster rifle. "The clones are charging, we have to go. Gather it all up, and we're gone!"

Varrin stayed staring out at the body of the dead Jedi, slinging the rocket launcher over his shoulder. He turned around and looked at 55. "Fifty Five, grab the ammo, and… and… just, just move" he stumbled over his words, picking up his E-5 blaster rifle in his hands, and making sure his pistol was still ready.

The group gathered up all of their equipment and headed towards the elevator, still completely unable to describe what they had just seen.


	3. A Turn of the Worst

_"Most people are guilty of being over confident of certain things throughout most of their life. Thinking there's no possible way things could take a turn for the worst. The day of the deactivation was the last time I remember consciously making that mistake." – _Varrin Torrik

- **Time on Mygeeto – 25 days**

- **Time Till Droid Shut Down – 5 Minutes**

The Confederate base was on full alert. The Republic had several platoons attacking it hard from the front gate. The base was a munitions and supply drop off point. Ships in orbit would leave supplies there, and it was left in a long string of warehouses while it awaited droid transports to take the supplies to various units which were fighting within the hundred mile radius.

It wasn't the only supply base in that area, but it was the place that the Republic had decided to smash. The base had a large army of droids and defenses stationed there which had retreated from places that were farther forward due to the advancing Republic forces. The base commander was a short, three eyed Gran named Kavto, who had taken control of all the units at the base, and was organizing a defense. He was an experienced officer, and they were holding out well.

The base itself was set up as a square. Warehouses lined the entire perimeter, which was encased by a tall electrified fence. The warehouses faced in to the center, where a number of ships and transports of various sizes sat around a tall command tower which was used to direct the traffic on the base. The vessels were all presently grounded due to the attack, since they needed every droid on hand to be firing on the opening the Republic forces had made, which came through front gate. The Gate was the only entrance to the base aside from a complete aerial assault.

The Republic had taken up positions in buildings just outside of the base, but were also pouring in and holding their line at the front whilst AT-TE's marched forward firing volleys at Confederate tanks.

"Eat it GARS!" Varrin yelled the slur for Republic troops as he was firing a missile forward at an advancing clone who was mounted on an AT-RT. The agile walker kept charging forward, and the burning purple projectile curved, but overshot, instead slamming into a warehouse.

The small group of organic fighters was in a small bunker fairly close to the front. It was about one hundred and fifty yards away from the break in the gate. It was a grouping of metal barricades that went up about five feet, and stretched out another thirty feet. Only Varrin, Crevil, Nik, Fitz, and Golgok were there with the exception of a handful of B1s.

There were several of these positions around, two of which were on top of the roofs of the warehouses. There had been one outside of the base, but it was completely overtaken by that point.

"How long do you think until they give up!?" Crevil asked loudly. He was laying down and firing towards the clones that were firing and taking cover.

It was hard to hear him over all of the shooting, and the march of several thousand battle droids that were slowly pressing towards the Republic line.

"They've only been here for about twenty minutes." Nik called back, firing out with his blaster rifle over their small barricade. "Probably once we get a few Haillfire's here out of the 452nd. I'm sure they made the call for them by now." Nik remarked noting the nearest brigade to theirs.

"I hope they hurry up! I see a few Dropships way down the street way down the street dropping off more clones." Crevil replied.

"Urg U' Rog ar Irto gumv O'n" Gorgok yelled holding his hands to a set of headphones. He was monitoring the radio for any updates on the battle, and for any further orders. Fortunately he had the good news that Nik had been right.

"See, command always comes through in the end!" Nik commented on the fact that the IG-227 Hailfire Droid Tanks were about to arriving.

"I see the tanks!" Fitz yelled looking over the barricade.

"55, come watch this, you'll love it." Varrin yelled back towards the B1 that was loading his E-60 Missile launcher.

The droid approached the front of the barricade and they all watched as a group of 4 Hailfire Droids came into view, their giant wheels spinning as they unleashed a massive barrage of missiles on the group of clones. They were at such a close range the Republic forces had no time to react.

There was an immense series of explosions on the Republic force that was attacking the base, and it was effectively cut in half. The troops that had been standing within the base were now cut off from their fire support which was decimated. The Hailfire droids rolled back, and were preparing to make another charge.

Golgok looked up again, hearing a new set of orders. "Gu ro Jur'ol co'ul tha" He yelled over all the noise, taking the headphones off and picking up his blaster rifle.

"Alright, you heard the order." Nik said. "Advance. Crevil drop the sniper, we're going close." He ordered moving around the barricade beside the advancing line of droids.

Varrin slung the E-60 Rocket launcher, and brought his E-5 blaster rifle back to his hands. "Up and up 55." He said tossing the droid an E-5 as well.

The group moved out together next to the army of advancing droids. They ran forward, rather then the slow march of B1s and B2s that was sustained. They had to catch up to the front of the line, since they would likely be the most effective at gunning down the retreating clones since they had an idea of what they would do, as opposed to the droids who would just mindlessly shoot at them.

The barrage of blue had been greatly neutralized, and was being overtaken by the onslaught of red that was rapidly being returned.

The small group of organics were very enthusiastic moving forward, and fired at the group of clones that were still trying to cover the retreat.

Nik was at the front, with the rest close behind him. Varrin ran just beside 55 who was able to move tirelessly faster then the humans.

Suddenly Varrin heard an audible electronic spark. It was like a sharp system shut down, and he watched 55 slam into the ground.

"Wo, 55's hit!" Varrin yelled, halting. He immediately assumed that the droid that been hit by a blast that he did not see. But in that moment he wished that had been the case.

Without warning all of the advancing droid army proceeded to fall down on itself. A huge sound of tumbling metal as the guns all fell silent, and a shaking in the ground as the heavy droids toppled over themselves.

Everything from the B1s to the Dwarf Spider Droids looked as though their legs had just given out. They fell in all directions, some forward, some backwards. The tanks that had been with them seemed to go out of control and smash into some of the buildings.

All the while the small group looked in awe as the advancing army suddenly became a pile of empty metal.

They stopped running trying to make sense of what had just happened, but it didn't make any sense.

"Aw Frell!" Nik cursed. "They must have hit the droid control ship! Its just like Balamak!"

Varrin looked back. "Not a chance!" Varrin yelled. "These droids are running off of close 5 signals, there's no way they hit all of em." He knew that hitting a single ship wouldn't have caused all of them to collapse, since the droids were all from different portions of the battlefield.

The group was standing just off to the side of the river of deactivated droids, and were not sure what to do.

All at once they began to take fire from the blue shooting blaster rifles of the Republic. They hardly had time to react, and the shots were very accurate.

Golgok screamed. "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa!" He was struck with a blaster shot to his neck. He slumped over to the ground as his body went limp. His black eyes suddenly empty.

"No! Golg's out and we're…." Crevil yelled.

A massive blast suddenly knocked them all to the ground. It was large and blue and they didn't see it coming. It made them all spread apart. Nik flew forward, and Varrin and Fitz flew back. The blast hit very close to Crevil, and he was tossed in the air, and landed as a lifeless shell.

Varrin opened his eyes to see that his back was against the wall of the warehouse they had been next to, with Fitz a few feet from him.

Surprisingly he had dragged '55' the entire way with him. He had been looking over the droids head, and squeezed his hand down on the droid's neck when the explosion happened.

Everything was hazy, and he felt very dizzy. Dirt and debris was all over him. He felt a pain in his leg, and he tried to move it. It hurt him, and he was having a lot of trouble.

He looked over and saw Fitz getting up, his blaster rifle in his hand, and he looked down at Varrin.

"Fizz…." Varrin said, barely able to get the words out. "Fizz help me…" He was gradually coming around, but he still felt dizzy.

Fitz looked at him, a look of fear on his face. Like he was standing on the deck of a ship, and there was only moments to get to a lifepod.

In that moment Varrin could see it in his eyes, and he knew what was about to happen.

Fitz dropped his rifle, and suddenly ran off.

"Fitz… don't leave us…." Varrin tried to reach his hand out towards him, but he was too far. He ran by the small bunker that they had started at, ran around the other side of the warehouse, and disappeared from view.

Varrin looked down towards the front gate, and could see a group organics. He didn't know who any of them were, but he recognized Nik's bald head standing there firing. There were less then ten of them, and they were taking a lot of fire.

They were falling one at a time, and Varrin came back to reality.

He looked down and saw the dura-steel plates on his uniform had been badly damaged, but probably were the only things that saved his life. His leg was bleeding and still hurt, but he managed to get to his feet.

He wanted to go and charge with the others, but in that moment another blast, like the one that had hit Varrin and the others a minute before, finished off the line.

Varrin looked at the droid that was at his feet. He was having trouble thinking clearly, still trying to soak in all that had just happened.

Their army was deactivated, his unit dead or deserted. Thinking on Fitz leaving him there made him angry. The clones were still a hundred yards away and Varrin wasn't sure if they had spotted him yet. He looked back down to the droid.

"55… 55 we have to go." Varrin said somewhat crazed by all that was happening. The lifeless droid didn't respond.

Varrin decided that while Fitz, a young man he'd only known for a month, may have been a coward who left others behind, that he would not do the same.

It was stupid and he knew it, but he didn't care. He felt like all was lost anyway, and he'd had 55 with him for over a year. He wasn't going to just leave him there. But with Varrin's leg the way it was, there was no way he'd be able to drag the droid.

He acted quickly and pulled out his SE-14 blaster pistol and put it to the droids neck. With a rapid succession he fired three blasts into the droids neck. It weakened the metal to just a small piece of metal and Varrin hit it with the pistol hard, which caused it to snap off.

Varrin stumbled back from hitting it so hard and fell. When he hit the ground he looked up and saw a squad of white armored clones moving through the gate. He scrambled to his feet once more and while he tried he saw the clones look at him.

He wasn't sure, but he could swear he heard "There's one, get him!" in the deep and angry clone voice they always heard.

"Aw, Blast!" Varrin yelled, falling back on his behind, and scooting away.

He felt a metal grind at his back and he remembered, he still had his E-60 missile launcher.

Varrin reached back and brought it up, just as the clones started to run at him. He didn't have long, and looked through the targeting sight. He didn't wait an instant after he heard the 'bwoop' that it had a lock. He squeezed the trigger and the rocket soared out.

The clones dove when they saw it, and the rocket dropped at the ground they stood on. Two flew, and the others slid on the ground as the explosion rang out.

Varrin didn't wait to see the results. He worked his way to his feet, using the Missile launcher to help him. "Ehhh!" he groaned as he made it all the way up.

He started to hobble away towards the center of the base as quickly as he could. It was about the speed of a quick walk, and he made it back to the small barricade they'd been at.

Varrin realized he needed help to continue on, and he grabbed the only thing he knew could help him. He grabbed Crevil's old sniper rifle, which was barely long enough for him to use it as a cane. It allowed him to steady himself, and increase his speed, and he proceeded on.

He held 55's head in his hand as he limped his way towards the center of the base. The droids were scattered everywhere within, all cold and dead pieces of metal. Varrin was very disheartened by the image, but he needed to get away.

He looked and saw the collection of starships and transports and knew it was his only chance. Varrin wouldn't be able to outrun the clones with his leg like that, and he most certainly couldn't fight them off. So he limped the way towards the center to see if he could find one that was quick and that he could fly.

Many of the small craft required multiple people to operate, and he needed one that was just him. He saw a STAP and thought he could get away on that. Unfortunately his leg was so hurt, he'd never be able to stand, and they might have speeders to chase him.

"Come on, come on" Varrin said to himself "There's gotta be somethin' here." His tone was desperate, and his head continued to move around.

The view image of a small speeder sized craft that Varrin recognized caught his eye. A grouping of Mankvim-814 light interceptors were all parked next to each other, and Varrin dashed as quick as he could towards them.

As he approached he opened the cockpit. "Why the hell weren't we using these!?" Varrin asked no one with an exhausted tone. It didn't make sense to him why they had a group of fighters just sitting there, when they could have been using them to take down the Republic.

It occurred to him as he sat down in the cockpit that until the droids shut down, they were winning and it wasn't necessary.

He activated the tiny fighter's primary systems, and the engines and repulsors kicked on. Varrin dropped the droid head down at the floorboard, and it bounced a little. "Sorry 55."

The fighter began to lift off, and Varrin looked out to see a CIS banner still blowing in the wind. It was an image he imagined he'd hang onto for a very long time.

Varrin moved the controls forward and the tiny fighter lifted off towards the sky, leaving behind it the backdrop of an empty base in the heart of a city that was eerily silent for the first time since he'd been there.


	4. An Echo In Emptiness

_"It was just one thing after the next. Yelling out and hearing only the echo. You get the wind knocked out of you, you take a short breathe, and it gets knocked out of you again. But at least I knew where we stood after that last little bit of… tragic news." – Varrin Torrik _

- **Time in Orbit over Mygeeto – 26 Minutes**

- **Time After Droid Shut Down – 34 Minutes**

"Come on baby." Varrin pleaded desperately towards the control panel before him. "Divert the power….. pleeeeeeeeease!" It didn't do any good. The repulsors in the wings maintained their power level and would not divert it to the engines.

"Dammit!" Varrin said folding his arms at his chest, his hands no where close to the controls of the tiny fighter he floated in.

The tiny blue and gray Mankvim-814 light interceptor was an unnoticeable speck of metal with a set of tiny wings just behind the cockpit. The stars shown brightly in the black of space surrounding the war torn planet of Mygeeto. The white and brown world was angled beneath the small ship so that Varrin did not have to have it distracting him.

He had managed to escape capture on the planets surface, but only just. But that very narrow escape had landed him in a new predicament. The fighter he had boarded to get away had a low generator charge, and wasn't able to go very far before Varrin needed to shut down the engines. And with the lack of hyperdrive, power, and space to move, Varrin was becoming very agitated.

"Of course all the ships were sitting there." Varrin muttered angrily about how he found the fighter. "There isn't enough POWER IN THEM TO GET YOU FROM A BEACH TO THE WATER!" Varrin began to struggle in the confined space he sat in, hitting the sides and kicking the under the control panel.

His foot landed on the head of the deactivated droid "55", and Varrin got control of himself after feeling a pain in his leg from the injury he sustained a half hour earlier. He leaned forward and picked the B1's head off the floorboard. He held the heavy piece of metal and looked at its eyes.

"Looks like I won't be far behind you 55." Varrin mentioned regarding the droids inoperable nature.

Varrin's situation appeared grim. He had shut off the ships major power draining systems to ensure he could at least make it back down to the planets surface if need be. But the Republic troops would probably grab him up as soon as he landed, and he was worried they could have an order to shoot CIS troops on site.

He still wasn't sure what had happened to the droid army at the base, but he had more pressing issues, namely whether to take his chances landing, or to just wait till he ran out of oxygen in the tiny little shuttle.

He had tried to divert any power he could towards the main generator of the craft so it could be diverted to engine power, but he wasn't a technical expert. He knew how to operate a starship, but he didn't have much of a clue of what to do if there was a mechanical problem.

"What… to do… what… to do….." Varrin repeated several times leaning his head against the cockpit window.

Suddenly an idea went in his head. "Wait a minute!" He yelled out loud. "The fleet!"

Varrin had never been highly involved with orbital activities. Generally he was just dropped off on this world or that world, and would fight there. Any news he received was second hand and frequently was wrong. So the thought of looking for ships wasn't one that came quickly since one day out of forty since he'd join the CIS was spent on board a ship.

He moved his fingers over the console to see if there was anything that was close enough for the small ship to reach. Without the atmospheric conditions that he had to deal with on the planet he might be able to make it a bit further, but he couldn't be sure.

The sensors took a read of a wide area, until they finally closed in on a friendly vessel.

"Lucrehulk. Perfect!" Varrin announced his excitement at the classification of the vessel.

The Lucrehulk-class battleships were massive donut shaped craft with a ball at the middle which were where they were controlled. The ships were so large and well armed that it took a whole group of Republic cruisers to take the ship on. He couldn't have asked for a better turn out.

"Only got the one shot, but I have plenty of power" Varrin's voice bounced off the confined walls of the little fighter.

"And I'm talking to myself." Varrin finally admitted to himself. "So nobody cares."

Varrin then shook his head. "To hell with that though, I'm gonna get outa this!" Varrin said excitedly pushing the controls forward towards the CIS ship.

**- 14 minutes later**

The trip was very short now that the nimble and speedy fighter was free from the harsh pull of the world's gravity and wind. Varrin had been optimistic the entire way there, thinking that he had been very lucky to make it out of the base.

He wondered if Fitz got away, but he knew that with the Republic advance he was surely captured. The little coward had never been much of a fighter, and was always screaming about something with a scared look on his face. But he'd run off right when he was needed most. They could have worked together to retreat, but instead Fitz left Varrin there to die or get captured.

"Bastard" Varrin said to himself as the massive ship was coming into view.

He checked the generator read out and saw that he was running fairly low on power. But he still had a good fifteen minutes of energy left. And even if his fighter gave out, the battleship could send rescue ships.

Varrin activated the com-link between the ships and began to broadcast his arrival.

"Mankvim Interceptor to Lucrehulk, this is Varrin Torrik with the 21-78 Wake Walker battalion stationed at Ite-VI munitions base. Acknowledge." He said to himself with the link open.

Strangely there was no response.

"Lucrehulk, this is Varrin Torrik in the Mankvim fighter approaching you, requesting docking orders. I'm running out of power and am in need of assistance, over."

Still there was no response. But Varrin's craft continued to approach the massive ship. The closer he got the immense nature of the ship became more and more apparent.

"Lucrehulk, I'm needin' help here." Varrin said less cordial. "Pick up you stupid droids!"

Without any response, Varrin looked at the energy read out, and realized he needed to land very soon.

"Alright Lucrehulk, have it your way." Varrin shrugged. "I hope you got room, I'm commin' in."

He aimed the craft at giant cargo arm on the port side. The nose of the small ship tilted down and with a small shot from the thrusters it came in between the ships arms.

As the ship came about, it was almost like a giant space monster was about to swallow Varrin's tiny ship like he was just a small insect. But the craft didn't move. The small blue and gray interceptor moved through the invisible docking bay shield that kept the harsh environment of space outside and keeping things livable on the ships interior.

What Varrin saw inside of the ships cargo bay made his eyes go wide.

The floor was littered with lifeless B1s and Droid Starfighters.

Just like on the planets surface, the droids here were all deactivated and dead pieces of metal, just thrown about like they'd all been hit with a massive ion blast that deactivated them all.

Varrin brought the fighter down onto the floor of the massive hanger, and made sure the oxygen was still functioning in the ship. After seeing that life support systems were still working normally, he opened up the clear cock pit hatch.

He looked around and he didn't hear a thing. Not a sound except the clicking of the hatch locking in place.

Something was wrong and he knew it. He reached down and grabbed 55's head, and carefully lifted himself up. His leg still hurt from the blast earlier, and so he eased slowly down onto the floor.

There was no one there to receive him. Nothing was moving. But all the lights were on and he could see an empty hanger that was filled with deactivated droids.

"Hello!" he yelled. There was no response except for the impressive echo off the walls. "Is anyone there!"

Varrin walked forward a bit more and stopped. "Hello!"

Still there was no response. Something was obviously wrong, but he didn't know what.

He looked around and saw a small loading hovercraft. A deactivated B1 was laying down on the controls. Varrin moved towards it, pulling it out of the vehicle, and it smacked on the ground with a loud clunk.

"Eeeee, sorry" Varrin said to the lifeless droid as he got onto the hovercraft. He set 55's head next to him and he moved the hovercraft forward.

The ship didn't have any large spacecraft in it, all if its transports were likely already deployed on the planets surface. It just had the bodies of droids laying around like it was a scrap yard, and Varrin was starting to think that what had happened on the planet may have been more serious then just losing a base and a battle.

He looked around further down and saw a blue and gray painted Sheathipede-class transport shuttle, and too his surprise, a small group of people around it.

Varrin suddenly felt a wave of relief come over him, and approached the shuttle with the cluster of people.

The hovercraft hardly made a sound, and so Varrin decided to announce himself.

"Hey!" He yelled.

Immediately the group drew weapons on Varrin, not knowing he was.

Varrin reached for his own blaster pistol, but he didn't have time. He just slammed on the breaks and put his hands up.

"Wo, wo, wo, wo, wo!" Varrin yelled. "Friendly. Ju't'aga!" He said a Neimodian phrase for friend. He didn't speak their language, but since they were prominent figures in the war it was a good thing to know.

The group lowered there weapons. And Varrin stepped off the hovercraft. He grabbed 55's head and looked them over.

It was a diverse group, but not an unusual one for the Confederacy. A Neimodian, a Rodian, and a Quarren were looking at him. The Neimodian was wearing long robes, the Rodian a simple gray uniform, and the Quarren a blue and gray uniform with durasteel plates at the front, similar to Varrin.

They appeared equally confused by Varrin's appearance, with scorch marks across his the armor plates, and his dark blue uniform torn in a few places, not to mention the droid head he carried.

"Who are you?" The Neimodian asked, the other two remaining silent.

"Varrin Torrik with the 21-78 Wake Walker battalion, stationed at sector 922-J on the planets surface." Varrin explained. "We were defending a munitions base when suddenly all the droids deactivated." Varrin started to speed up. "I don't know what happened. The droids were from all over, not just one signal. I didn't see an ion shot... and…and I barely got away."

These were the first people Varrin had seen since his escape, and he was finally able to give a report, which had brought the recent memory of horror and confusion back to his mind. This caused him to just spew it all out in a big ball

"It wasn't just you're position. It was everywhere." The Neimodian responded. He was wearing dark black and green robes and a tall cylindrical hat.

"What, you mean like the whole system!?" Varrin asked surprised. He didn't know what could have done that.

"Bi'ju'lu'gu'da" The Rodian answered.

The Neimodian repeated the Rodians answer. "No, the entire Galaxy. All droid forces have received a shut down order."

"What!? How!? Why!?" Varrin demanded. He was utterly shocked. It was simply impossible from where he stood.

"We don't know. The signal was on the Councils Security clearance." The Neimodian explained the origin of the signal. "We're the only ones of the crew who aren't droids."

Varrin didn't know what to make of what he was hearing. His left eye twitch and he felt like he was going to vomit. "B'… wha'…" He had trouble making the words. The Separatist Council wouldn't have shut down all the droids, there was no logic behind a move like that. They were suffering from serious sieges all over the outer rim, and a major shut down would leave them extremely vulnerable.

He couldn't come to grips with a galactic army falling down, and Varrin's mind moved to something it could handle.

"This whole ship!? You're the only moving crew?" Varrin had never seen an entire battleship be rendered crewless, and it became strangely real when he was looking at all of the droids suddenly dead and realized that they were never alive.

"Not for long." The Neimoidian said. "I'm Captain Dulrok. These are my security and engineering chiefs" The Neimoidian pointed at the Quarren first, then the Rodian. "And we are abandoning ship. We cannot operate it without the droids."

Varrin didn't know what to say. He'd never abandoned a ship after he just got on it before. "But where are you going to go?" Varrin wondered, hoping that there was room for him on the shuttle.

"To a fall back position. We got word that the remaining forces are retreating there to and we need to get there before the Republic realizes what's happening." The Neimoidian said, then realized they were just wasting time. "We don't have time with this. Bu'vo, start the ship." The Neimoidian tapped the Quarren, and began stepping onto the ramp. He looked back. "Are you coming?" He asked Varrin.

Varrin blinked and his head bobbed. "I'm not stayin' here." He limped forward and climbed up the ramp behind the group. The Rodian shut the ramp as he made it up, and Varrin sat down.

The shuttle was nice and spacious. Varrin hadn't been in a comfortable transport like that in a very long time. The CIS force was mainly composed of droids and the manufacturers didn't care much about the tiny minority of organic troops that had an uncomfortable ride.

Varrin placed 55's head on the seat next to him, and he could feel the shuttle begin to lift up.

The Neimodian captain looked at him and then down at the droid.

"Why are you carrying that droids head?" He asked, since it didn't make sense why the human had picked up a single droid's head and was carrying it.

Varrin looked down at the droid's head, and held it up, looking it over. "Leave no man behind." He shrugged.

The Neimoidian laughed lightly and looked forward towards the front of the craft. "Get us out of here Bu'vo" He ordered.

The craft moved forward through the ship, and out through the main hanger entrance and out into the black of space.

Varrin leaned his head back, but his eyes remained open, as he tried to sort through everything he'd heard and seen in the last hour.


	5. Ironic Optimism

_"I was actually fairly optimistic after the shut down, ironically. It was a scary thought at first, but after that I was on the winning end of the battles I was a part of, which was a good change. So as far as I was concerned, the Empire taking over was the best thing to happen for the CIS… at least for a while I did anyway."_

- **Time As Crew of the ****_Meridian_**** – 71 days**

- **Time After Droid Shut Down – 86 days**

Empire, Defeat, Lost Cause, Surrender. These words had come up so frequently in the last few months. Though the reason of the galactic wide droid shut down was unclear, it was really just one piece of a very confusing puzzle. The Separatist Council was missing, and no one had any idea where they were. General Grievous had been ambushed on Utapau and was viciously murdered. The Jedi had apparently seen the light and staged a coup against the Supreme Chancellor, which apparently failed miserably, leaving them all fugitives. And perhaps the most confusing, the Republic was reorganized into the Galactic Empire, with the former Supreme Chancellor now acting as the all powerful executive of the new state.

"Sir, we're going to drop out of hyperspace soon. You might want to wake up." 55 announced with his usual monotone electronic tone.

Varrin opened his eyes and sat up to look down at his control console and onto the view screen in front of him. "Sleep's good for you, 55." Varrin replied, even though he hadn't really been asleep. "If you're not careful I may deactivate you again, so you can learn to appreciate it."

Nearly three months earlier during the droid shut down, 55 had responded to message, and like the billions of his identical brethren he deactivated. Varrin managed to save the droids head, which contained the droids overall identity, while he made his escape. Fortunate enough to find another group of surviving CIS fighters, he travelled with them to a rendezvous point, where a group of CIS Holdouts was formed.

The small group which had primarily come from Mygeeto and Muunilist organized a fleet, and Varrin Torrik was placed on the _Meridian_, a Providence Class Carrier-Destroyer. The small group had begun working with pirates and slavers. They were fortunately able to reactivate several droid crews, and so they were functioning fairly similar to how they had during the war.

The most evident problem however was that the remaining CIS had experience in fighting the Republic where they outnumbered the enemy at least 100 to 1. Now fighting the Empire, the odds were reversed.

The _Meridian_'s commander was not fond of fighting with slavers and pirates, feeling they were not real soldiers capable of military action, who would fall easily against the might of the Empire. Fortunately it was made known that the Trade Federation had refused to surrender, and continued to activate and manufacture droids, throughout an area of space known as "The Five Veils." The Meridian made it's way there, and linked up with the Holdout Forces there in attempt to continue fighting this new Empire.

For Varrin, it seemed like nothing had really happened. Sure they were losing the "Lost War", since the Empire had declared victory since the Governing body of Confederacy of Independent Systems had completely disappeared. All that remained were a number of armies and fleets that were not organized together still fighting. But for Varrin, even though the CIS may have ended up not being as powerful as it had initially hoped, it could still likely manage to cut out a piece of the galaxy that would be it's own sovereign space. That was what he hoped for at least.

He'd managed to convince his new superiors to reactivate his favorite droid, the B1 3R-1355. But it seemed useless to have Varrin working by himself and a useless B1. So 55 was modified. His droid-brain was expanded significantly, allowing him to be programmed with far more then the traditional B1. He had the abilities of a pilot droid inserted, more advanced knowledge of weaponry, and his combat capacities were expanded greatly in terms of strategy and individual awareness.

Though 55 was greatly improved, the droid still was a B1. He more or less was all the variants of a B1 rolled into a single shell, but he was still frail, and didn't exactly excel in any of the areas he could now work in. He essentially met the standard of a basic organic soldier, who could learn a variety of tasks, and that was fine with Varrin.

"How long until the ship drops out of hyperspace?" Varrin asked 55, who was sitting in the seat directly behind him in their modified Mechanized Assault Flyer. Originally the craft was only designed as an in atmosphere gunship. But the Separatist Holdouts needed a craft for their now proportionally larger organic force, and all the ship really needed was a cheap set of thrusters.

The small ship had more then just space worthy engines thrown on however. A large box was added just beneath the large circular track that the ships rear turret worked on. And inside that box, there were dozens of battledroids. The 18 meter long in atmosphere gunship had been turned into a fast and capable Naval boarding ship, and it sat in the _Miridian_'s hanger just waiting for the shining blue light of hyperspace to change to black, when it would take off.

"Two minutes and fourteen seconds." 55 responded. "Should we proceed to vehicular technical checks?" The droid asked moving his three fingered hands along his own console.

"Yeah, we might as well." Varrin nodded, though he wasn't able to turn around and see the droid sitting behind him. "Sound off."

"Fuel readings at 100%. Repulsor variators functioning normally. Thruster integrity 100%. Hull abrasions, zero. Generator output, 100%. Weapons armed and readout is normal. All onboard computers reading without malfunction. Rear cargo hold to full capacity." 55 recited. "All systems check, minus the Repulsor capsulator on the port side flashing orange… again." 55 said with an attitude.

"Happens all the time. It's only a problem if we're hit there. And besides if we're hit there, I don't think the repulsor not activating is gonna be our biggest problem." Varrin laughed. If the wing took a heavy hit, the whole craft would likely go down, and it wouldn't matter that their turns were going to be a little choppy, since they would likely have a serious hull breach.

"Alright, my turn." Varrin said, activating various com-links on his console. "P-6, how's your turret workin'?" Varrin asked. The com didn't need to be activated since P-62L, was the B1 battledroid that was in the furthest back position, sitting in the seat that was behind 55 manning the top turret.

"It's spinning fine, sir." Returned a droid with a voice identical to 55.

"Right, movin' on. Sergeant, how are things back there?" Varrin asked in the com which was directed to the B1 battledroid that was inside of the back of their MAF

"It's crowded in here, sir." The droid answered through the comlink. The sound of metal bumping against metal, and the muttering of other battledroids could be heard behind him. Things like "stay in your spot" and "don't push me" were heard.

It made Varrin laugh since he knew that those droids were packed so tight they probably couldn't move an inch. "Hahaha, don't worry Sergeant. We'll get you outa there in no time, and you'll have plenty of room to shoot Imperials, how's that sound?" Varrin asked, preparing to switch the com over.

"Sounds good, sir" the droid responded.

Varrin moved the com over once more towards the large fighter escort that was about to take off at the same time as them. "Vulture-280, you ready to take us in?"

Vulture-280 was a Vulture Class Droid Starfighter, and was the designated flight leader of the escort fighters for Varrin's transport.

"Di-tu chi ga" Came the response through the com. Varrin didn't speak Neimoidian, which was what those droids were programmed to speak with, but he knew enough phrases to know that meant 'yes they were'.

"Alright, looks like we're set to go." Varrin moved the com one more time, but before he could activate it the com to the ships bridge, 55 spoke up.

"20 seconds till we exit hyperspace." The droid pointed out, still working on the readings from the Co-Pilot seat.

"Got it." Varrin acknowledged activated the com to the bridge. "This is Lieutenant Torrik." Varrin said, noting his very quick promotion from Corporal all the way up to Lieutenant, since the need for experienced soldiers was now very high. "Requesting permission to lift off the moment we drop out of hyperspace."

There was a pause, and a Neimodian's voice came in reply. "Request acknowledged Lieutenant. You may proceed the moment we come into position. The Imperial ship will be on the starboard side. Good luck."

"Roger that command, same to you." Varrin said, then switching over the com to his flight group, and activating the ships engines and repulsors.

"5 seconds" 55 replied, and he began to move things at his control panel.

Varrin flicked switches and turned a dial, and the ship began to make a sustained electronic growl, as it prepared to lift off of the large hanger floor.

"3…2…1" 55 counted down. "Dropping out of hyperspace."

The whole ship could feel the shift as the vessel came out of hyperspace. Through the shields of the hanger entry, the blue hue changed to black with bright stars. And immediately the sound and shakes of the _Meridian's_ weapons were felt.

"Alright team, move out." Varrin took a breath and the MAF lifted off of the ground of the hanger.

Droids ran here and there in the hanger, as droid starfighters lifted off of the floor as well and raced out of the hanger in their respective directions, whilet he MAF piloted by Varrin moved slowly forward and then out through the shield.

It was peaceful on this side of the ship, though the audio receptors transmitted the translated sound of the different energy waves into recognizable sounds for Varrin to understand. The boarding craft drifted forward and tilted its nose up to move over the Providence-Class Carrier/Destroyer. It lifted over to the top of the ship, and Varrin turned the craft to be level as it made it just in front of the spire of the ship.

Before Varrin's eyes there was a single Venator-class Star Destroyer, something Varrin was very familiar with, with its fancy all gray paint job. Flashes of blue, red, and green were exchanged as a huge cluster of fighters charged at the ship. It was bright and the craft was already shaking as the different shockwaves it.

"Ready 55?" Varrin asked as the ship began to pass over the top of the _Meridian._

"Ready, sir." 55 responded without missing a beat.

"Then here we go!" Varrin shouted as he activated the MAT's boosters and they began to race straight towards the giant Imperial ship before them.


	6. Smash And Dash

_"The Empire may not have known at the beginning how to fight the CIS Holdouts, but we sure knew how to fight the Empire. Hell we'd been doin' it for years, they just decided to change their colors, and nothin' pissed them off more then a good 'Smash-n-Dash." – Varrin Torrik_

- **Time in Battle – 2 minutes**

- **Time After Droid Shut Down – 86 days**

"Yeah!" Varrin yelled as the small MAF flew at full speed towards the gray painted Venator-Class Star Destroyer before them, appearing as only a tiny dark silver spec when compared to the massive triangular vessel.

"Sir, enemy batteries are firing a defensive barrage." 55 said in the co-pilot seat just behind Varrin.

Varrin had an excited smile on his face. "Nothin' to worry about 55, just keep checkin for fighters!" he yelled back.

The small ship bobbed and strafed as it moved in ever closer to the Imperial ship that was in front of them. Green, blue, purple, and red energy blasts soared all around. Everything from lasers to missiles were being exchanged from the Providence- Class Destroyer behind Varrin's small MAT that was working a full sprint towards the enemy ship.

Varrin maneuvered the ship, but not with any great example of piloting excellence. The modified MAT was incapable of advanced spins or flips that a great pilot would do, which was fine with Varrin since he was capable of only the most basic aspects of piloting. It was like flying a large box, and it was about as mobile as it was in atmosphere. Forward was the main direction, and turns were more of an emergency option as far as Varrin was concerned.

"There are the fighters!" 55 yelled forward, adjusting his navigational console to track as many of the nimble enemy ships as he could.

"What flavors we talkin' here 55!?" Varrin asked, hoping that they weren't dealing with anything much worse then V-Wings. They could handle a shot from something like that, but only one or two. If it was a small and fast attacker, then Varrin would be worried.

"Two squadrons of ARC-170's and three squadrons of V-Wings so far." 55 responded "I'm still tracking more ships powering up." The B1 said as his three fingers moved over the console.

"See nothin' to worry about. The Vultures'll draw their… WO!" Varrin stopped as a green blast streaked dangerously close to the cockpit.

Varrin shook his head, thanking the powers of the universe it wasn't a few inches to the right. The monitors were all reading that they were doing fine, so he kept back at it.

"Vulture-280! We're getting' smacked around hard! Where are you!" Varrin demanded from the Vulture droid on the com-link. The fighter escort had launched just before he had, and yet still they were taking an awful lot of fire.

"Chu-to-ca-ii" Came the high pitched sounding Vulture droid that was leading the fighter escort.

Varrin didn't know what that meant, since he wasn't completely fluent in Neimoidian, so he shook his head. "Just get out in front of us and start rippin' the fighters to hell!" For all Varrin knew that was exactly what the Vulture Droid had said, but the droid wouldn't complain.

"Sir, were one minute away from the target." 55 said in a calm tone. Not being able to see the huge amount of fire in front of them, and being a droid probably aloud him to be at ease, as opposed to Varrin who could see everything and had their fate in his hands.

"Guess we aughta put out the signal." Varrin commented. "Transmit distress signal 829-U to Venator." Varrin ordered having the ship take a small dip down, to get more level with the Star Destroyer.

"Transmitting, get ready to talk." 55 nodded, sending out the signal forward towards the enemy vessel.

Two seconds went by and suddenly there was a voice with a distinct Core-World accent coming through the com.

"This service hanger control! What is it!?" Asked a somewhat frantic voice. It wasn't a clone, but it seemed they were in quiet a bit of shock at the sudden attack.

Varrin took that to mean it was the operators first battle, which would make it easier.

"We need to land now! Vultures tore us to bits! Aft engines overheating and there are severe hull abrasions!" Varrin yelled, suddenly with a terrible look of horror on his face. Even though the person on the com couldn't see him, he was still very in tuned with his pretend panic.

"Uhhh, r-r-roger, we're lowering shields now! Get in quick!" The voice from the Venator replied.

"Gah! Confirmed Service Hanger! Coming in now!" Varrin yelled back, and switched off the com.

Varrin had a snide smile come over his face, and he gave a cackle like laugh. "Hahaha. Are the hanger shields down 55?" Varrin asked towards the droid behind him.

"Yes sir. Congratulations on successfully rehearsing for our final transmission" 55 joked. The processors in a B1 weren't meant to handle a great deal of information, and that was part of why they talked so much, to process that information. Though 55 had been upgraded significantly, the droid still wasn't expected to have lived more then a month, let alone a full year. That caused his personality to mold and he had a lot to talk about.

"Yeaaaaaah shut up 55. Not like you could do better." Varrin responded, but then squeezed the controls. "Alright, were goin' in full." Varrin activated the com. "Sergeant, were about to land, get ready to deploy." Before there was a response from the leader of the droids in the back cargo pod, Varrin switched the com off.

The tiny MAT was now right in next to the portside of the Venator-Class Star Destroyer. Varrin had the small boarding craft going as fast as it possibly could, and it came up next to a small hanger that was near the rear of the ship. It would only hold three fighters at most, but that was plenty of room for their ship. They came in very quickly, and just as they were a second away Varrin reduced speed so they wouldn't crash.

As they slipped through the Service Hanger's atmospheric shield Varrin could swear he locked eyes with the standing officer that was inside of the small control room that faced out into space. It seemed to Varrin that the man was horrified at the image of a CIS boarding ship coming into the hanger rather then that of an ARC-170 which was what the signal they had transmitted told the control room they were.

"P-6! 55! Clear it out!" Varrin ordered to the droids behind him, as he put his fingers over his own weapons control.

The swivel turret on top of the MAT, controlled by the P-6, fired a rapid set of heavy shots towards the control room, causing a massive explosion. All the while Varrin, controlling the forward blaster, and 55 controlling the wing lasers, slaughtered the five or so engineers and mechanics that were in the hanger. It was cleared out in less then three seconds, and Varrin set the ship down in the empty hanger.

"And we're in." Varrin said, as he pulled down a lever which opened up the rear of the MAT.

All at once a ramp in the back of the craft dropped down, and dozens of droids marched and rolled out. An even collection of B1s, B2s, and Droidekas filled the hanger, and searched for targets. As they did, Varrin grabbed his blaster rifle from beside his seat and opened up the top of the cockpit.

"Alright 55, you got the ship. Watch our exit." Varrin said as he stood up. "Don't laser me in the back on my way out." Varrin ordered jokingly.

"I'll wait till I can see you're front sir." 55 replied as Varrin lept down from the top of the MAT.

With the E-5 blaster rifle in his hands Varrin moved up to the front of the droids. "Sergeant, break through and hold the entry way." He ordered walking forward.

The droids marched forward with Varrin beside them and they opened the door. There was the sound of a blaster fire and suddenly silence. When Varrin got through there were a number of dead men on the ground in a cross road sort of corridor.

"Alright, hold position. Rollers," Varrin spoke towards the Droidekas "Head towards Corridor L-6. Deploy and shoot everything that gets in front of you.

Without a moment of hesitation the Droidekas balled up and rolled out of the small room they were in.

Varrin looked around at the droids near him. "Where's the hacker." Varrin looked over the B1's, and one of them stepped forward.

It had an orange stripe on its head, and a large, square, metal backpack on it's back.

"Alright, you, and these four come with me." Varrin pointed at a group of four B2s that were standing together. "The rest of you, spread through the halls about one hundred meters. Shoot everything you see." Varrin started to move away. "Oh, and use lots of detonators. Trust me, they help."

Whether the droids would listen to him or not was irrelevant. But in close quarters and confined spaces, the clones didn't tend to use detonators. Especially since it would damage their own ship. Varrin however didn't care what he broke.

Varrin's group of droids followed him through doors, and into halls that were surprisingly empty. He had assumed there would be security or something running to get him. But with a large space battle going on outside, that probably was taking up most of the crew's attention.

Finally they opened a door, and there were a group of crewmen. They seemed younger and fresh faced. Varrin and the droids didn't hesitate to shoot them all. Varrin saw the pistols on their hips, and he knew they'd use them.

They continued on. They took a left here, a right there, went through this door, down that hall. Varrin knew where he wanted to go, and it took him three minutes of non stop running to get there.

A final door opened up, and they arrived at a tiny room which was filled with was appeared to be computer equipment. It was a ship monitoring station located nearest to where they were. Stations such as that were set up so that crew caught in different sections of the ship could see how other sections were doing, and if they were in danger.

The room had a single chair, and a clone sitting in it watching a several screens. He turned around in the chair with a surprised look in face, as a man wearing a blue and gray uniform with durasteel plates was looking at him with a blaster rifle pointed at him.

"Hi." Varrin said, as he pulled the trigger and killed the defenseless clone. The clone took the bolt to the chest and fell back limp in the chair.

"Move the body. Hacker, plug in." Varrin ordered, moving out of the room. One of the B2s grabbed the clone and threw it out of the room while the B1 came in behind him.

Varrin looked to his left and looked to his right. "Damn." He said, realizing that two halls were on either side of them, and they had no way of knowing if any troops were coming their way.

"Two of you, two of you left." Varrin told the hulking B2s, which then began to move. Towards those positions, and stopped. Their arm mounted blasters were aimed forward, and their thick armored bodies were prepared to take blasts as they would come.

Suddenly some white armored troops came around the right corner. They began to lay down a blue stream of fire at the CIS group, but the B2s fired first and faster.

Varrin stayed by the door, covered by it, as he fired down at the group as well. The clones were good shots, and Varrin was glad he had the distraction of the large B2s. The small group was finished quickly, without anywhere to hide, but one managed to get back to cover.

Varrin took a knee and looked towards where the group had come from, and another group of clones appeared, this one was larger and had five. They began to fire at each other, and the B2s were getting hit hard. Fortunately they were strong enough to withstand the few hits they'd been given so far, but they wouldn't take much more.

"Hacker! Are you hooked in yet." Varrin demanded, turning to face the droid.

The B1 had hooked the large backpack into a piece of the console, and the screens had become very fuzzy with coding and error messages coming on.

"Yes sir, the data is coming." The B1 responded.

Varrin didn't doubt the droid, but he knew that it may be making a mistake. He liked B1s, but he wasn't blind to their flaws, which were many. And this would be a very bad time for a flaw to show itself.

The group of clones were moving up tactfully by hiding in doorways, and laying down suppressing fire. Unlike the first group, this group hadn't lost anyone yet, and they were getting closer. Varrin knew this was a big problem, which was amplified by one of the B2's falling to the floor.

"Cre'f'a'um'u!" Varrin swore in Huttese, and he looked towards the B2s on the left side. "Left side, switch right."

The two B2s, which had been staring only at the left hallway, switched to look to the right, and opened fire. Varrin moved out to check the hallway they were leaving, and he didn't see anyone.

"Hacker! Lets go!" Varrin yelled. It shouldn't have taken that long to do what they were doing, and so he was starting to worry. He ran back into the room, with shots of blue and red still pouring down the right hallway.

The B1 was unhooking the backpack from the console, and putting it back on. "Ready sir!" the droid said, and it stood at attention.

"Come on, move!" Varrin pushed the droid forward, and it began to move out of the door. "B2's begin…"

THAAAAAAAAAAAAANK!

Varrin looked left to see the B1 with the back pack have the orange stripe on its head replaced with a deep black hole from a blaster bolt. The droid hit the ground hard and didn't move. Unlike Varrin who was staying parallel with the B2's for cover, the B1 had run directly between them and was an easy target.

"Blast! Gimme a break here!" Varrin begged as he reached to grab the extremely important backpack. He hefted the heavy thing onto his back and continued back to his orders.

"B2's, one hold, two with me, move out!" Varrin turned and headed towards the left hallway. The B2 in the middle held its position and the other two backed up, still firing. When they were a few feet away they turned and ran to catch up with Varrin.

Varrin had sweat running down his forehead, and he rubbed it away. The B2's caught up with him, and they kept their arm blasters pointed forward as they ran with him. Varrin reached in his pocket, and put on a com-link over his right ear.

"All droids, head back to the hanger immediately!" Varrin got his order out, just in time to see two Naval officers with blaster pistols come up in front of him. The droids and Varrin fired heavily at them before the two even had time to see them.

Going through the same path Varrin made sure they had a strong enough lead in front of the clones. He knew it wouldn't last, the clones ran very fast. Still the B2 he left behind might have stalled them just enough.

The corridors and rooms were clear all the way back until they got to the initial hallway that started at from the hanger. The remaining droids were there firing against a group of clones which were hitting them from every direction that wasn't where Varrin's group was coming from.

Varrin didn't stop to help even a moment, he just ran through saying "Get back to the ship, Hurry!"

The order was followed by a sea of "Roger" as the droids all tried to squeeze through the door as quickly as they could. The droids had about half their original group still remaining as they came back towards the MAT which was parked right where it had been.

"55! They're right behind us!" Varrin exclaimed in his com-link as he charged through the hanger.

"Roger, weapons ready." 55 responded through the device.

When all the droids were through, the door closed. But only a second later did it open back up, and a white armored trooper was there. Varrin turned around to see, thinking in that moment he might be hit, when suddenly the weapons on the MAT tore into the door, blasting the troops that were there to pieces. They continued to fire loudly as Varrin and the droids came upon the ship.

Varrin was about to climb up to the cockpit when he realized he'd never fit with the backpack. He ran around to the back of the MAT, and up the ramp to where the remaining droids were all looking at each other and speaking panicked chatter. Varrin didn't see the sergeant, and immediately assumed the droid had been destroyed. He looked at a B1, and ran up to it.

"You! Put this on!" Varrin screamed, taking it off and helping the droid put it over his shoulders. "Do not drop it!" Varrin back down the ramp as he began to hear the B1s start asking each other what the backpack was for.

Varrin ran quickly to the front of the craft, as fire was still coming from its turret towards the door. He grabbed hold of the handles and hoisted himself up onto the top, and hopped down into the cockpit.

"Ja miss me." Varrin asked 55, as he moved the lever back up to close the rear ramp. He checked to see that it was secure before he started the craft up again.

"How could I miss the human jumping into the cockpit?" 55 asked back, taking the statement in a different context.

"No, dammit, did…" Varrin was going to correct the context, but he decided not to since they needed to leave. "Lifting off" Varrin announced, as the ship began to lift off of the ground. It hovered in the air a moment, and then burst away from the devastated hanger.

The battle outside the ship seemed to be a bit more intense. More fighters were out, and he could visible see damage on their capital ship. Varrin knew what to do, since he didn't want to fly directly through the giant fray before them.

"Droppin' low." Varrin said tilting the controls down. The craft went quickly far down beneath both of the ships. Even though there was fighting above and below the Venator and the Providence, the majority was clustered directly between them.

Varrin tilted the ship back up, and gave it full thrust back towards _Meridian_. It zoomed through the space, below the laser cannons and missiles which were lighting up the air above them. It moved fast, but this time there were not close shots or blasts coming near by. The ride was fairly easy. Varrin then pulled the controls back when they were on the opposite side of the Providence-Class Carrier/Destroyer.

They came up just on the safe end of the battle, where the only thing to worry about were missed shots that were going above and below the dark gray vessel. The MAT came up level with the hanger and gently came through the shield.

The MAT touched gently down off to the side of the hanger, as droid fighters flew in and out through the middle. Varrin opened up the cockpit and jumped down from the top of the ship once more, with 55 doing the same just after him.

"Smooth… as…. Silk." Varrin said looking at the droid, then moving towards the back of the craft where the ramp had lowered again and the droids were stepping out. Varrin quickly found the one with the backpack and told it to halt.

Varrin put his finger back on his com-link "Command, this is Lieutenant Torrik with the boarding party." Varrin's voice echoed in the large and open Hanger Bay. "We are safely back aboard the _Meridian_." He finished taking his finger off the com-link.

"Roger Lieutenant. Good work." Said the same voice that had given them clearance to leave.

Varrin looked at the backpack, which was the whole reason they'd gone out. The large, boxy, metallic device with an electronic wire running out the side didn't look like much. But inside was all the data and transmissions that was on the ship they had just boarded. It was a very unorthodox method, but the Empire did a good job at covering their signals which meant the only way to get to them was through a direct link. And because of that, methods like a 'hack-n-dash' were necessary, and the giant data sponge had seemingly done its job well.

Since the CIS remnants needed to know exactly what their current battle plan was, perhaps the ship may have had been given orders or even a copy of the entire Imperial plan.

Varrin could only speculate, but it didn't matter. The battle was still raging outside, and a Muun officer was taking the B1 away

"Come on, 55" Varrin said looking at the droid. "Lets hop on some turrets, and have some fun." He said walking towards the main deck of the ship, and was followed closely by his B1 who agreed with a "Roger, Roger".


	7. Maintaining Discipline

_"I never understood why people would give up and turn to their back on us. The Republic was a paradise compared to the Empire, and we were the only thing saving them from it. So I never felt bad about making sure the line was held. I personally think we were saving them from a worse fate. Really it was all just a matter of making sure discipline was maintained so the fight could go on." - Varrin Torrik_

**- Time In Farlorian System – 1 hour**

**- Time After Droid Shut Down – 149 days**

Hot air rushed passed the side of the brown boxy dropship. It was the afternoon, but that particular region of Farloria II was in the middle of the summer months. It caused everything to be fairly warm on the over all temperate planet. Blades of green and brown grass blurred endlessly as far as the eye could see beneath the craft that roared quickly over it. Though it was several hundred feet in the air, the grass still felt the effects of the engine force and bobbed and swayed the moment the vessel went past.

The dropship was a Vehicle Armored Carrier, VAC, which was deployed very heavily throughout the Clone Wars. It could hold three tanks and a number of droid troops in its hollow hold, and only required two pilot droids. It worked better when more then that were at the helm, but they were shot down so easily that was not usually an option that was taken. It was weakly armored, and had no weapons in its factory design. The only real benefit was that it could carry a lot and carry it fast.

This VAC was not factory fresh however. Instead of a completely enclosed cargo hold, it had large openings in port and starboard sides. Its small wings were deployed and stretched just over them, providing shade to gunners that were installed on both sides. The craft had several laser turrets mounted on it, where men and droids could be seen walking about inside of the speeding transport.

But this VAC was not alone. All around it were others just like it. Fifteen of them were charging forward escorted by two squadrons of droid starfighters. They flew quickly over the endless grasslands around them, and made an incredible noise as they soared by. There had been several people that they had passed on their way, all of whom were stopped to watching the amazing parade of craft flying over their heads, holding onto hats so that they wouldn't blow away from the wind that was created by them.

Inside one of the VACs, Varrin Torrik leaned against a wall, checking over his E-5 blaster rifle to ensure it was working properly. At his back there was his E-60r Missile launcher, and he wore his usual dark blue uniform with faded durasteel plates all around it. Beside him 55 stood, though the modified B1 was staring out the side of the transport.

"A civil war inside of a civil war just seems stupid to me is all I'm saying." A younger soldier said. He was a human named Enthaz, and was walking through the large drop ship. He had short dark hair and was holding a long sniper rifle.

Varrin looked back over to him. "This isn't a civil war in a civil war." Varrin answered back. "The Confederacy is not a part of the Empire, and never has been." Varrin pointed out matter-of-factly. "We're being invaded by a foreign power, and we're trying to keep traitors in our own territory from undermining our war effort." Varrin didn't have a smile on his face for that statement. He fully believed that what he was saying was true.

Enthaz shook his head. "You know what I mean." He walked over closer to Varrin keeping himself balanced as the transport swayed every so often. "Aren't we just doing what the Empire does? Forcing Farlorians to stay with the CIS…" Enthaz paused. "And with a full invasion. It just seems wrong."

Varrin was not much older then Enthaz, but he had fought all the way through the clone wars where Enthaz was fairly new by comparison. "The Farlorians made a pledge of loyalty to the Confederacy the same as the rest of our worlds. The people still follow our cause, but the worm hole brained people in their capital just decided to have a little coup." Varrin spoke on the morality of the situation. It was what he was told, but he knew there was a far more realistic reason they were there. "That's an illegal action, and the CIS is sworn to protect its people from threats both Foreign, and Domestic." Varrin adjusted a battery pack on his belt. "Besides, if we can't keep the line held, we can't very well win this fight can we?" Varrin asked rhetorically.

Enthaz looked away, shaking his head again. "If we're wrong and the people here don't want to fight with us any more, then they shouldn't have to." He walked back towards the other end of the VACs cargo hold.

Everyone with a real brain in their head that was with them knew the real reason they were there. Farloria II was rich in resources, particularly in durable metals. Its foundries were very important to the CIS as they could use them to build resistant weapons of war that had great effect against the new Empire. But when the Holdouts heard that Farloria II was no longer going to cooperate with the CIS, they had to ensure they secured the planet before they had time to submit to the Empire.

Things had been going bad for months. The CIS Holdouts were having immense trouble holding their territory. Almost daily they would hear of a new planet where they suffered a crushing defeat. The _Meridian_ battlegroup, which Varrin was now a part of, had been rather lucky. They had won most of their battles, and hadn't dealt with many serious ground incursions. This was something different though, and it didn't sit well in many of their stomachs.

Varrin was at peace with the idea though. He believed his superiors who said that it was people in the capital that had revolted to separate from the CIS. It had happened several times during the days before the Empire, and they were either dealt with swiftly, or the Republic would have put their greedy fingers all over them. They couldn't let this planet go too. It had been a great haven for the Holdouts, and one of its best suppliers. The best part was the Empire hadn't gotten around to dealing with them. But if they did, and they came to find open gates, that would be a serious loss to the CIS Holdouts.

"Synal defense installation coming in view." A droids voice said over the intercom.

Varrin looked up when the announcement came as did everyone else in the hanger. He picked himself off the wall and start walking towards the port side of the transport.

"Let's have a look 55." He said as he came around to the opening. He took hold of a pole on the inside wall and leaned himself out to see what was in front of the attack group. The wind was hitting Varrin in the face so he had to squint his eyes to keep them from drying out. But he could see what was a head clearly enough.

There were several plumes of smoke rising straight ahead of the dropships. They were coming from a set of buildings that were together in a fairly small space. In the background a city could be seen, Synal, the capital of Farloria II. The set of buildings had a large flat area around it, where fire was becoming visible. As they got even closer they could see Vulture droids doing strafing runs, red blasts tearing from their wings.

Varrin was looking at the defensive installation of Synal. It was a large starfighter base that was located just outside of the city itself. It was the key defense of the city itself, which prided itself on the abilities of its fighter pilots. The base itself held hundreds of starfighters, but it also played host to a great deal of infantry. If an attacker ever tried to take the city, they would be met by a hornet's nest of Farlorian starfighters. During the Clone Wars they had carried the backing of the Confederate navy, which deterred any Republic fleet from venturing to take it. Now however they were alone.

Synal was located in the flat grasslands, and in the past there had been attempts to invade it. But the fighter base was always able to release its starfighters, and pelt any invading army into nothing before it even reached the city gates. And in space they swiftly dealt with any pirate presence. Synal was not a target that should be taken lightly, as one needed to be very serious about taking it.

The commanders of the _Meridian_ battlegroup however understood that all to well. The fact that they were still alive and operating after the overwhelming majority of the CIS had fallen was a testament to their skill and strength. They knew about the fighter base, and had sent a small squad of infiltrators to sabotage the Synal sensor grid. The moment the grid went down, the battlegroup dropped out of hyper space and sent a wave of Hyena-Bombers straight at them. Vulture Droids followed directly after, and massacred everything within the defensive installation.

Varrin looked down, with 55 now standing directly beside him, as they flew over. There were droids marching in the fighter base, bearing the markings of the CIS. A C9979 Landing Craft sat at the center of base, its four wings held wide as out from its belly came MTTs and AATs. Varrin could see a group of prisoners looking up at the group of ships that soared overhead.

"They seem surprised to see us." 55 observed looking down on them. He was making a joke as he obviously couldn't see their faces any better then the others. But the fact that they were subdued so easily gave that away.

"Don't they always?" Varrin asked rhetorically looking away and stepping back inside the transport.

"They didn't at Zozyr." 55 answered back, reminding Varrin of a battle they had been present for a year earlier. They had thought that they were ambushing a Republic battalion, but were themselves ambushed by a platoon of Republic forces that they thought had been wiped out earlier.

"Well, they usually do." Varrin amended, and stepped around towards an AAT, one of three that was sitting there in the transport.

"Two minutes till arrival at Synal." The same droid voice said over the intercom.

Varrin hopped up on top of one of the AAT's and kept himself level by holding onto the turret.

"Board the tanks, were gonna drop!" Varrin ordered. As Lieutenant, he was the acting officer of that specific transport. "Gunners to the posts. Make sure munitions are ready and armor strapped." He continued. "I want the STAPs deployed before we touch the ground, get them started. Clear the deck, and squads to the walls!" Varrin finished.

Before he had even finished giving the orders, the troops began to move. There were only three inside that were not droids, and Varrin was one of them. Aside from Enthaz there was a young girl Zabrak named Diyog. According to her the Empire had raided her home town and her father was taken to prison. She was fighting with the CIS Holdouts thinking in the battles they fought they might eventually free him, but Varrin knew that she was in the wrong place for that. But an extra fighter was always useful.

Suddenly the transport began to shake, as it took fire from batteries in the city. Varrin wasn't worried. This was common, and it wasn't likely to harm anything until they got a bit closer. They could always do for a distraction.

"L-10!" Varrin said putting his finger to his ear. "Take your squadron forward and engage the batteries." He ordered through the com to the commander of the fighter escort.

"Chu-ta-ga-ee." The droid responded in Neimoidian.

The fighters began to move away, with a screaming whine of their engines as they pressed forward. Varrin could hear the fighters begin to shoot back at the turrets, and could hear missile fire. The firing against them got lighter as the batteries ahead of them shifted their targets to the advancing fighters.

"55, you ready to go." Varrin said walking around in the hold just as the four STAPS had their engines started and the waited to move.

"Ready, sir." The B1 gave its usual programmed response. When asked questions like that 55 rarely would make a passive aggressive comment, or ask a stupid question in return.

Varrin looked out again, and could see that they were just about to pass into the city. He checked to ensure his equipment was all together and he moved over towards the port side wall. Beside him there was a line of ten battledroids, just as there was on the other side. They were really just fodder and for intimidation purposes, the tanks were going to do the damage.

The VAC passed over the outer city wall and was now soaring over buildings. Sirens blared throughout the city, and Varrin could see scared people fleeing in the streets, desperately trying to get to safety. He could also see some groups of uniformed Farlorians. Police and defense forces no doubt. They were all the enemies now and they'd be dealt with.

"STAPs deploy!" Varrin yelled. "Gunners open up!

The buzz of the STAPS echoed as the four gun platforms with a single battle droid each left the large dropship. This was mimicked by several other dropships with them. The laser turrets mounted on the walls began to spray sustained blasts of red down towards the uniformed Farlorians. The enemy soldiers immediately had to duck for cover, and attempted to return fire. It was futile, and they were pinned down. The droids also fired at people, but the main purpose of that was to ensure that they would try to get out of the way faster.

Varrin looked over and say an upper level street. It had speeders on it, but had very few people on it. He decided that was the place he wanted to land at.

"Land at 38-42. The upper level street, now!" Varrin ordered. He could see that there were some Farlorian troops already there. They'd smash that group quickly, and secure that vantage point for the snipers.

The VAC turned left and dropped down. He came directly over the street and the gunners fired on everything that was moving. The VAC stopped about two inches above the ground and held its position.

"Everyone out!" Varrin ordered as he himself hopped off and onto the street.

The droids all moved off of the large dropship, and the floor of the VAC's cargo hold began to open up completely. The repulsors on the AATs were already activated and when the floor beneath them went away they were hovering on the street. The VAC then began to lift up leaving the three AATs to emerge from beneath it. The gunners remained on the VAC and the craft tilted right and moved away.

The AATs began to fire immediately, which was enough to scare away the Farlorians. They remained where they were and the group of twenty stayed with the tanks ensuring the position was secure.

"Tanks, head up the road, clear it out." Varrin pointed and the AATs began to move forward. "First and second squad, you come with me the other way." Varrin then pointed in the opposite direction.

Varrin then looked over at Enthaz and Diyog. "Enthaz, Diyog." He said. "You hold this position. Seems to be a good spot for picking things off." Varrin gestured towards Enthaz sniper rifle. "Hit anything you see, and tell us if theirs trouble. We'll do the same." Varrin finished.

Varrin didn't wait for a response; he and 55 began to lead the group of twenty droids off in the opposite direction. Their weapons were ready and they were prepared for anything would come at them. All the while more VACs landed in the city, while droid starfighters continued to bombard everything in sight.


	8. Never Without a Hitch

_"Anyone who thinks things can go over without a hitch has never been on a battlefield. Sure things seem easy when everything's going according to plan. But when you realize that the only thing that could go wrong in that plan happens, and its far worse then you could have imagined? Well let's just say that's when you start to wish your army was made of more then just droids." – Varrin Torrik_

**- Time In Farlorian System – 3 hours**

**- Time After Droid Shut Down – 149 days**

A bead of sweat dripped down Varrin's face as he fired another string of blaster bursts down towards the group of Farlorian defenders in front of him. He and his droids were taking cover down beside a large statue which had collapsed in the center of a courtyard. There were ten of Varrin's droids left including 55. The rest had been destroyed along the way. It wasn't a terrible loss in any sense of the word; in fact Varrin thought that they were doing well because they had lost so few up till then.

"Enthaz, you in position yet!?" Varrin asked, leaning his back down against the rubble. He made sure that he was no exposed, even though his droids didn't. Most of them remained standing, but at least they were still shooting.

"Almost there!" Enthaz voice came over the communicator in Varrin's ear.

Varrin was relieved by that. He hadn't thought they would find any more groups that were still trying to put up a fight. They were in front of a government building, which Varrin assumed had civilians in it. There didn't seem to be anything else in his mind they would be attempting to defend. So the defenders, which were merely soldiers, police officers, and other mixed people who happened to have weapons tried to stop their advance as much as possible.

"55, put a rocket on em!" Varrin yelled towards his favorite B1 who was standing just beside him. There was a great deal of noise do to the exchange of fire and shouting was necessary.

"I can't, sir, we have no more missiles." 55 responded, leaving the E60r Missile launcher on the ground. The droid continued to fire with its E-5 blaster rifle instead.

"I thought we had two left over!?" Varrin asked the droid.

"We did. But you used them on that attack speeder." 55 reminded Varrin. "We'd still have one if you had hit the speeder on the first try." The B1s high pitched monotone showed a certain agitation over that fact.

"How was I supposed to know it was gonna move!?" Varrin yelled back, defending the first miss. They'd get more missiles soon, but it was unfortunate they didn't have them there.

Varrin moved over to sit down facing forward towards the enemy and peeked over. There were about seven of the defenders standing behind a makeshift barricade. Unfortunately the two groups were locked in a firefight that wasn't going anywhere. They'd only been there for a few minutes, but Varrin would probably lose his droids before the droids managed to hit anything.

Then there came a voice in Varrin's ear, one that was familiar. "We're in position." Said Enthaz through the com.

The voice was followed by a long red blaster beam which came from high up on a raised street. It was so far that no one could even get a good view of who had shot it. The sniper blast struck one of the defending Farlorians hard, and he fell down. Amidst the man's scream came another blaster shot and another one fell.

Varrin knew that the Farlorians would be disoriented by the addition of a sniper, and he stood up. "Advance!" He ordered the droids, who began to move forward without fear or hesitation.

The march of the remaining droids seemed to scare the remaining Farlorian defenders, and they ducked down hiding from the blasts. They did not return fire while Varrin and the droids moved up quickly. They came right onto the barricade and found the remaining five Farlorians unarmed and hands held up.

"Corporal." Varrin said looking at another B1 that was standing in his line. "Arrest them." Varrin ordered.

The Farlorians seemed a bit surprised that there was a human standing with the droids. It may have occurred to them that he was the reason they were outflanked so easily when they thought they were secure. Either way they were at Varrin's mercy and the droids moved them down the small amount of stairs, keeping them under guard.

Varrin approached the building, 55 close behind, and he opened the door cautiously. He moved in blaster first and looked straight ahead. He was standing in a hallway that was poorly lit, likely due to the power troubles the city was having since the invasion began. But in spite of the darkness, Varrin could still see well enough and could hear exactly what was in front of him.

The hallway was filled with civilians. Scared Farlorians cowering inside of the building thinking it was safe. The building was fairly large, and they were probably told it would act as a shelter. Varrin didn't know how many of them were inside, but he could see that the hallway held at least fifty men, women, and children. He assumed the rest of the three story building was full as well. He did not have the man power to secure the entire building and go through and check it for weapons. So he did the only thing that he could do.

"Stay here." Varrin ordered towards the ones in the hallway he had seen. They could easily recognize him as a Confederate soldier, and thus not an ally in that moment. His dark blue uniform and durasteel plates stuck out to all of them, as well as the blue hexagon on his left shoulder.

Varrin stepped away from the building, and down the steps. His droids were still watching the five Farlorian defenders. Varrin had not taken any prisoners before then in the conflict, but wanted to continue the advance. He paused not sure what to do. But as he pondered an answer was made for him.

Down the street a column of AATs and battledroids were coming around a corner. Varrin hadn't heard them before, but the constant whine of Vulture droid engines and the sound of explosions and blaster fire around the city made gauging things such as that difficult. There were five AATs there, and a number of speeders coming with them. The tanks continued towards them, and moved past them. It had two Platoon Attack Craft, PACs, more commonly referred to as battle droid carriers, with them. One was still full of deactivated battledroids, while the other was completely empty.

Standing on one of the flat bed PACs was a Rodian. He wore a uniform similar to Varrin's except his did not have the durasteel plates at the front. That showed that he was strictly an officer and did not do much combat fighting of his own. He had green skin and was a bit taller then most Rodians that Varrin knew.

"Ba no uko dolo vab ah?" The Rodian asked Varrin. Varrin understood Rodian well enough that he could answer the question.

"Just secured this building, Colonel." Varrin answered addressing the man by his rank. "Captured these 5 soldiers, and checked the building. It's full of nothing but civilians."

The Rodian nodded and rubbed the top of his head. "Go lo tah ju me a to loso do." The Rodian replied. "Ba nah an o go ru." The Rodian finished.

"Only have the ten droids, and I'm running low on ammunition." Varrin stated his combat readiness. He was still operable, but he couldn't stand alone for much longer.

Then came a voice through both the Rodians and Varrin's com. "We need help over sector A-294. Serious resistance encountered."

As they stood there a VAC came in over head, the brown boxy craft landing quickly in the courtyard. From its sides came a set of STAPs which began to buzz around the courtyard, but the VAC stayed.

The Rodian looked down at Varrin. "Vu ju nalala go mu ja." The Rodian gave Varrin the order to go and help in sector A-294 "Ji ga lim so juma an" The Rodian finished saying he would continue his advance. The Rodian then pointed forward and the PAC began to move forward again.

"Right 55, to the VAC, same with the rest of you." Varrin said towards his droids. The Colonels droids were picking up the prisoners and taking them away so he didn't have to worry about them. Varrin put his finger to his ear again. "Enthaz, were commin' to get you and Diyog. Got a position to reinforce."

"Roger that." Enthaz replied over the com.

Varrin and the droids boarded the large dropship, which had only two droids on the mounted side laser turrets. The VAC lifted up into the air and Varrin ordered it to the high street where Enthaz was. It took only a minute for all of Varrin's people to be accounted for and they were flying off to sector A-294.

As they flew Varrin moved over to the forward part of the dropship. They kept a great deal of ammunition in the VACs at all times, since they frequently would need it. An army made up of droids tended to expend rockets and other projectiles quickly, and thus it was necessary to keep a great deal of detonators, rockets, and energy packs ready. Varrin restocked, as did the others. Within a moment he was fresh and ready for more fighting.

It was still hot in the city, and it had only gotten worse due to the fires that were now burning. The Farlorians had managed to shoot down some of the Confederate craft, but for the most part the fires were destroyed speeders and detonated munitions that were causing parts of the air to be filled with smoke. Constant running and moving didn't make it easier in the thick uniform that the living troops wore. But life in war was never easy.

Varrin looked out the side of the VAC too see what was happening. Blaster fire still continued in some parts of the Synal, but it was far less then before. In the few hours they'd been there they had crushed nearly all resistance in the city. The sun drifted down even further it seemed to be a fitting backdrop for the end of Farlorian resistance. They had been completely outmatched, and they should have recognized that and surrendered. The resistance fighters in Synal were just police officers, some trained army, and people that happened to own a blaster. None of them had seen actual battles, and they most certainly didn't have munitions prepared for it. The _Meridian_ battlegroup on the other hand had been fighting constantly throughout the entire war, and were more efficient at it now then ever. This had been one of the easiest fights most of them had ever been apart of, Varrin included.

"Where is it we're going Lieutenant?" asked Diyog, the young Zabrak woman who had been with Enthaz. She called Varrin by his rank, which he thought a bit formal since there were only three of them who were actually living.

"Well well." Varrin said looking over at her. "Look who's decided to finally start talkin'." Varrin pointed out looking at her. She had not been fighting long, so she probably had a certain idea of what fighting in a war was like. Strict discipline was probably something she had in mind, but when you had an army that was made almost entirely of droids that frequently went out the window. Of course Varrin addressed those he didn't know or who preferred it with their rank, but when it came to people with him he didn't care.

"She doesn't have much to say." Enthaz suggested. "Didn't say much when we were on the highway." That seemed odd to Enthaz.

Varrin decided to answer the question. "We got a call for reinforcements somewhere east. They didn't say who, what, or why. So we're just going to beat down anything that's there." Varrin didn't need to know the situation, since he'd have to go in either way. Whether or not they'd have to run from it was a different story but for the moment it was enough.

"We're approaching the destination, sir." A B1s voice came over the intercom.

Varrin walked over to the intercom panel in the cargo hold of the VAC and activated it. "Stay on station when we disembark. We'll need the fire support." Varrin ordered.

"Yes, sir." The voice said back over the intercom.

55 looked over at Varrin. "Do you really think we'll need the VAC's support?" The droid asked somewhat confused.

"Hell, I don't know." Varrin shrugged. "But, you know how it is. Better to have and not need, then need and not have." That was Varrin's idea when it came to most of the way the CIS had fought. They were always overwhelmingly supplied, and they used that to great effect, even at the expense of a good strategy. Though times were different since the droids shut down, here that would still apply.

The large dropship came over the area that was their destination, and Varrin could already see the problem. There was a large building, what appeared to be a hanger with a closed roof. Outside of it there were two barricades, each had a mounted laser turret on it. In front there was a group of Farlorian defenders as they'd seen everywhere. The CIS force was very small detachment of no more then twenty. But the fact that their opponents matched that number and had the power the turrets made that a difficult situation. Fortunately for the CIS force, their reinforcement had arrived.

"Turrets, open up on em." Varrin ordered to the droids on the turrets. He hefted up his E60r Missile Launcher and aimed it at one of the small makeshift bunkers. It beeped as it got a full lock and Varrin squeezed the trigger.

Fwooooosh

The missile ripped from the front of the long black tube and smashed into the barricade. The turret that was mounted was torn off and the man on it was thrown backwards. As far as Varrin was concerned that was success, and he grabbed another missile from the front loading it into the weapon.

The VAC landed where the CIS force was holding and Varrin, Diyog, Enthaz, and the droids all hopped out of the dropship. They immediately began to fire towards the enemy's position. The increased volleys made it difficult for the Farlorians to return fire. Enthaz was taking aim and picking them off, while the turrets on the now lifting VAC rained down streams of red onto them.

As the Farlorians were ground down with the increased pressure put on them, they abandoned their exterior positions and ran into the hanger. They seemed scared and they didn't even bother leaving anyone to try to cover their retreat. That was a good sign since it showed that they felt a certain degree of hopelessness in their situation.

Varrin looked for the commander of the troops that was already on the ground. He saw only one face that wasn't that of a droid. It was a human with short red hair, who was no older then eighteen years old.

Varrin stepped over towards him. "You have any idea what's in that hanger?" Varrin asked the younger soldier.

"No sir, we were patrolling the street and we came across the position. We've been stuck here for about ten minutes." The red headed soldier said.

"Alright then." Varrin looked over at the droids in his group. He was now the ranking officer there, and so he'd control the whole unit. "Let's go have a look, Enthaz, 55, with me. You six." Varrin said pointing at a group of B1 battledroids that were in his group. "You stay here with Diyog and them." Varrin pointed towards the red headed soldier and the other droids that were already there. "You four." Varrin pointed at two B1s and two B2s. "You come with us."

Varrin started walking forward with his E5 pointed forward with the rest of the group. The VAC had come down to land behind them again. The droids on its turrets continued to scan for any enemies while the red headed soldier and Diyog waited with the remaining droids to see if anything would happen.

The advancing group came upon the small doors to the hanger. Varrin tilted his head to the side and one of the B2s approached it. The large silver droid attempted to open the door, and to everyone's surprise it opened. That either meant they were so scared they didn't bother to lock the door, which wouldn't have done them much good anyway with the ordinance the Confederates had, or it was a trap. Either way there was only one response that could be given.

The B2 continued to march through the small passage way and into the hanger, with the rest of the group behind him. There was no sign of a trap as they continued there way down the small corridor. Their boots and metal feet clacked on the metallic ground as they finished the short walk. They finally came to the end of the hall and into the hanger itself where they could see what was inside.

Before them was a large ship. It had an elongated long design with three engines at its rear. The ship was larger then a freighter and had four twin turbolaser batteries on it. It was easily recognizable as a Consular-class cruiser which was modified as a cruiser for the Republic War effort. The main difference between this one and others the group had seen before was that it was painted completely gray and had the symbol of the Empire emblazoned on its side.

"Is that a…?" Enthaz began to ask, just as surprised to see it as everyone else.

"Aw, frell!." Varrin cursed. "The Imperials were already here!" Varrin yelled.

All at once the ground began to shake. There were tremors of varying size and hard explosions could be heard. It wasn't like what was happening before as the main invasion had already occurred, and the resistance defeated. This was something else however, but they were similar sounds to what Varrin and the others had heard before.

Varrin turned and ran back down the hallway, 55 following right behind him.

"What is it!? Varrin, what's going on!?" Enthaz demanded as he chased after Varrin. The rest of the droids stayed inside the hanger.

Varrin couldn't answer it though, he needed to see. He got to the end of the hall and opened the door.

In front of him there was the VAC and everyone else outside. There was a lot of noise all of a sudden of engines and blaster fire. The troops outside were all looking up to the sky, but before Varrin and the others could do the same there was a massive explosion in front of them.

The roaring inferno started as a green and white set of bombs that landed where the other troops were standing. It struck the VAC, and the brown dropship blew apart. Pieces of metal flew in every direction, as the droids too were broken into pieces. They screamed and screeched through their audio projectors but it did them little good. The majority of them were tossed about and smashed, and the plasma fire dissipated into bits of smoke.

As the explosion concluded the scream of an engine was heard over head. Varrin looked up and saw a pair of V-Wing fighters fly directly over them very quickly and off further into the city. As he watched it dart away, he felt a very terrible sink within his stomach as he heard more rumbling and even more familiar engine sounds.

Varrin looked directly overhead and could see at least six triangular Acclamator-Class assault ships descending over the city, deploying dozens of starfighters and LAAT Gunships which were all filled to the brim with Imperial troops.


	9. Using Darkness For Light

_"No one likes interrogating prisoners, especially not in a dire situation. It can force stuff out of you that you never really knew was there, a deep darkness that you haven't seen before. But when you're backed into the corner and lives depend on you, you've got no choice but to let some darkness out in order to get to the light" – Varrin Torrik._

**- Time In Farlorian System – 7 hours**

**- Time After Droid Shut Down – 149 days**

"You see anyone out there 55?" Varrin asked the droid that was standing closer to the door. It was on the ground floor of the building they were in. It was dark outside but the droid wouldn't have the same trouble with it that Varrin did.

"Nothing out there, sir." The B1 responded peaking out through the door, which was half way open. "The patrol must have moved on." The droid concluded, and hit the door control. With a quick hiss it closed and clamped shut.

"Good." Varrin said. "Then we can get on to chatting with our new friends here." Varrin looked down at four men who had binders on their hands and feet.

The three men were very different. Two of them wore all white plastoid armor. They had dark hair and looked like identical twins. The only thing that distinguished the two from each other was the one on the right had hair that was slightly longer. They were easily recognized as clone troopers. The other two were not quite so battle ready. One was officer, wearing an all gray uniform, and a hat. He was young, and he was most certainly with the Imperial Navy, though a lower rank to be sure. The last of them was the most insignificant as far as Varrin was concerned. He was a local Farlorian police officer. Though they were all competent in their own right, here tied up they were completely useless.

Things had not gone well over the last few hours. By the time Varrin had seen the Imperial ship and pieced together the fact that the Farlorians had declared loyalty to the Empire, a fleet had already made its way there to ambush the Confederate battlegroup. Whether it was a planned trap Varrin had no idea, and it really didn't matter to him. He needed to get out.

The initial bombing run that occurred right before Varrin's eyes had been brutal. All but two of the B1's outside were destroyed along with their VAC dropship. The young soldier that had been their earlier was killed instantly, but Diyog managed to survive, though not in one piece. Her right arm had been struck with shrapnel and severely burned all the way up to the shoulder. In their haste they poured raw bacta all over it, simply to keep her from dying. One of the B2's had to carry her away.

The main phase of the battle had been incredibly short. The attacking force of Separatist Holdouts was completely exposed thinking that they had nothing to fear. And with no means of defense they're fighters were destroyed and army smashed to bits. It only took twenty minutes for the sound of heavy blaster fire and explosions all around the city to cease. Of course there was still shooting going on, but it was mainly stranded Confederates trying to make an escape from Imperials that had found their hiding spot. In general however they had been dealt a resounding defeat.

On the ground no one knew if the Meridian Battlegroup was still in orbit fighting or if they had fled. For all Varrin knew the fleet had been burnt away to pieces. Their communications had all been jammed, and even if they still had the capacity to use them Varrin wouldn't want to. The fact that they weren't giving off a signal to track had probably kept them alive that long.

Varrin had led the group to the safety of an empty store. Apparently the owners had been evicted some time earlier and so nothing and no one were there. It was perfect for Varrin and his remaining troops, which consisted of 55, Enthaz who was tending to the unconscious Diyog, two B2 battledroids, and one B1. The rest of the droids had been destroyed by the fire of an LAAT gunship which swooped over them whilst they ran.

Instead of hiding and waiting to be found, Varrin decided to devise a plan for escape. After an hour of hiding, he and 55 had gone out to see what they could find that might help them. The original plan had been to set up a communication link with any other forces. Fortunately they had come across something far more helpful.

They happened to find an Imperial officer and his escort questioning one of the local police officers beside the Imperial's speeder. Varrin didn't know why, but he didn't care in the slightest. He needed the speeder, which had five seats, two in front and three in the back. It would be a quick means of escape and they needed to get far away from the city. Once they got away from the city they would be able to procure a transport off the planet, and see if they could get to the emergency rendezvous position for the Meridian battlegroup.

Since they had been fighting a largely civilian population, Varrin had brought with him two stun-detonators. The devices would just send out a large shock, which would zap a person into unconsciousness, but wasn't enough to kill them. It hadn't been hard to sneak up on the group, which was followed by Varrin and 55 throwing the stun detonators down there. The shock worked perfectly, subduing all four men easily. But Varrin needed insurance and so he took the four men prisoner.

And now he stood before them in the dimly lit room without any windows. They were surrounded by droids, had their feet and hands completely tied up, and all weapons removed. The two B2 Battledroids had their arm blasters aimed directly at them, and were far enough away that the troops wouldn't be able to move fast enough to avoid being blasted. They were clearly scared, but the clones handled it the best.

"Now where were we?" Varrin said stepping closer to them. "Oh right, you were going to tell me the transponder signal code I need to send to the fighters to be recognized as an Imperial."

"We're not telling you a thing." The young Imperial officer spat back. He was young but clearly had enough pride in himself to stand up to his captor.

"Maybe you won't, but I'm betting one of you will." Varrin retorted. "Probably not him." He tilted his head towards the scared Farlorian police officer. "But one of you will."

"Please! I don't know anything! Just let me go!" The Police officer pleaded.

Varrin looked over at him. "Of course you don't." Varrin agreed. "But with the discovery of Farloria's new allegiance, you are, as far as I'm concerned, an enemy combatant." Varrin stopped when the police officer began to have tears run down his face and give a loud outburst.

"NO!" The police officer cried "I'm not! Please. I don't want anything to do with the Empire! I just want to go home to my kids! Please…" The police officer was cut off this time by Varrin.

"And that's not my problem!" Varrin said harshly. He turned around and looked at the B1 battledroid, whose number he hadn't learned yet. "You." He said. "Take him to the back room. Make sure he's quiet"

"Yes sir." The B1 complied, stepping forward with his E-5 blaster rifle up. "On your feet traitor." The B1s high pitched monotone made its words feel weightless. He brought the police officer to his feet. "This way. And shut your mouth." The droid brought the police officer to a stock room at the back, and the door shut behind him.

Varrin looked back down at the three men. The Lieutenant was a little too fresh, and probably too duty bound to give up information too quickly if plied directly. There were two clones their however, perfect specimens of the one-faced army that was the enemy. Varrin had interrogated them before, and now he was going to do again.

"Look, I get it." Varrin said kneeling down in font of the one on the left. "You're just a clone." Varrin sounded very sympathetic all of a sudden, but anyone with a brain could tell it was a ruse. "Only a few years old and your out here seeing the galaxy." Varrin had a concerned frown. "Its tough, and they put you out on a battlefield. You don't get a choice in anything you do. It's just march and die. No one deserves to live like that."

The clone looked back him, the spitting image of the once infamous bounty hunter Jango Fett, and an angry scowl on his face. "You're the only one who's dying here _Sep_!" He shot back. The derogatory hatred for the suggestion of someone not being loyal to Palpatine being something the clone probably could never understand.

"Well, I won't be alone." Varrin said calmly. He pulled out his SE-14 blaster pistol and pointed it directly at the clones had.

POOOOOOOO

The red blast lit up the room for just a moment as the blast struck the clone straight in the forehead. A light trail of smoke lifted from a burning hole in his head as he fell to his side.

"Forman! No!" The other clone yelled. He clearly knew the dead clone well, and it pained him to watch him die like that.

"Four-man" Varrin echoed standing up, the smoking blaster still in his hand. "I get it." He knew how the clones worked after fighting them for years. They frequently gave each other little nicknames because they didn't like the numbers. "What was he? 4-Delta Delta?" Varrin mocked trying to guess his actual designation. "No, Sigma 4-40." Varrin didn't follow it up with a laugh. He was in a stressful situation, and one that he wasn't convinced he was going to get out of. But he needed to what he had to regardless.

The remaining clone and the naval officer did not respond. They averted their eyes from the corpse and didn't look at Varrin. They no doubt assumed they'd be next, as everything they believed about the Separatist scum was amplified by the brutality Varrin was showing them right then.

"You might wonder if I feel bad about killing clones." Varrin suggested. "I mean their living, their breathing, their thinking, just like me." Varrin continued and paced a bit in front of them. "But really I don't. In fact I feel worse for the droids." Varrin said looking over at 55 who was guarding the door.

"See you clones look like people but your not." Varrin stated heavily. "You all are grown in a little tube. You don't have parents, you don't have families." He stopped pacing and looked down at the remaining clone, who was now looking away at the floor with a hard expression on his face. "Your bred to fight, and you all do a damn good job a that lemme tell ya." Varrin said trailing off looking away like he could see them fighting. "But what about those people like me that you fight? Hmm? I got parents, I got real friends. I wasn't born to do this. I chose to." Varrin walked over and stood in front of the clone. "And all you want to do is hate me. All you want to do is kill me." Varrin laid out the clone's mission as though it had been one he had heard himself.

"That's why I don't feel bad when I kill clones like you. Cus you're not like me." Varrin's words were filled with venom and his own personal spite. "Because I have to watch my friends, my people, who all have lives and just want to live them in peace, get injured or killed. Like Diyog over there." Varrin said pointing at the unconscious Zabrak. "Injured and killed by things like you." Varrin squatted down right in front the clone and looked him in the eyes. "At least a B1 can be reprogrammed to do something more fulfilling. You're just a one-trick Bantha who no one even cares exists."

Varrin's feelings about the clones were never understated. He hated the Republic, and he hated the clones especially. They weren't just the enemy soldiers but they were an offense to independently thinking people everywhere. In part it may just have been jealousy that the Republic had such capable fighters right from the get go and Varrin had been among the best soldiers in his units for years, and he barely could keep up with a clones pace. Still the galaxy was what it was and there wasn't anything Varrin could do to change it if he was dead.

"But I digress." Varrin shifted looking over at the young officer. "Now you're going to tell me your officer transponder code." He stood back up all the way and looked down at him. "You have to the count of three."

The officer looked up at him with a sneer and said nothing.

"One." Varrin said.

Still the officer said nothing.

"Two." Varrin counted off again less then a second after the last number.

The officer refused to move.

"Three".

Varrin put the SE-14 down on the Imperial officers left shin.

POOOOOOOOOOOO

The Imperial officer screamed in pain as the blaster tore through his leg. The burning sensation was undoubtedly immense, and it would need serious treatment.

The clone beside him struggled, trying to see if he could do anything. He was already in a terrible state of mind with his friend dead, but now that he had been so horribly insulted on a personal level, he was very volatile. But his captors had made sure he couldn't move at all, and there was no escape.

The Imperial officer rolled onto his side, and continued to scream. The smell of burnt flesh carried up into the room, but only Varrin and Enthaz could actually smell it. Neither was disturbed by it though, it was something they'd gotten used to at that point.

"Now I'm going to count off again, and this time you're going to tell me what I need to get out of this city!" Varrin was yelling this time. He was not as gentle as he was before. "One…. Two… Three!"

Varrin counted off very quickly, too quickly for the officer to have any real time to respond. Varrin dropped down and put the blaster pistol to the man's right arm.

POOOOOOOOOOOO

Once more a shot rang out; this time the point blank ranged blaster put a searing hole into the officer's right arm. He screamed in agony once more. But he could do nothing to stop it. It was horrendous and it echoed throughout the room. The heavy door and walls however muted it from the outside world and no one could come to help.

In that moment Varrin almost felt bad for the Imperial Officer. The poor soldier was probably new to the ranks, and had opted for the Navy as it wasn't as dangerous. He likely enlisted right before the Droid Shut Down, and assumed at the war was truly over. Not seeing any real combat and probably had a job that was closer to public relations did not prepare one for a situation like the one he was in. Either way, if he was smart, Varrin would leave him with a great story about his first tour of duty. He'd likely even get a medal and a promotion.

"Now I'm gonna try this one last time!" Varrin yelled at the sniveling officer on the ground. He put the blaster the to back of the mans head. The officer couldn't see Varrin or the weapon, but he could feel the heat from the SE-14 and he could hear Varrin screaming at him. It was without doubt the most intimidating situation he'd ever been in, and that was Varrin's plan. "One!"

"NO!" The officer screamed "I'll give you the code!" He sniveled out fluid from his nose and tears ran down his face. "Please don't kill me! Please!" The officer repeated.

"What's the code!?" Varrin demanded from him.

"54-YNS-8!" The officer answered back. "Transmit through frequency 7U-A!"

Varrin removed the blaster from the back of the officer's head. He stood up and turned around to face the droids and Enthaz who had been behind him on the other side of the room.

"Everyone get to the speeder except you two." Varrin said pointing at the B2 battledroids. "You help Enthaz get Diyog onto the speeder, and then start a steady march towards the West. If anyone gets in your way, blast em." Varrin ordered. He moved over towards the back room, and opened the door. The police officer was still being held at blaster point by the B1 who looked over at Varrin. "Were movin' out." He told the droid. "You stay here." He said to the police officer. The B1 followed Varrin out, and they walked beside the B2 outside. It didn't matter to Varrin that they were leaving the prisoners. There was nothing they could do about them, and they'd be picked up soon enough. But it would be hours still then and at that point Varrin and his people would be long gone.

It was colder then it had been earlier. The city was fairly dark as the power had gone out in many sections. The sound of ion engines however could be heard all around, and the smoke from fires could still be seen burning. The triangular Acclamator-Class assault ships were no longer seen in the air. Only squadrons of fighters moving here and there were visible.

The speeder which they had commandeered was sitting in an ally just beside the small store. Diyog was loaded into the backseat of the vehicle, and the others all got on board as well. Varrin sat in the driver's seat and 55 sat beside him. Enthaz and the other B1 battledroid sat in the back with Diyog. Quickly Varrin punched in the Imperial transponder code which had been deactivated while the vehicle was originally parked.

With the code active, they could drive freely through the city, and the passing fighters and other vehicles wouldn't take any notice of them. They would have to be directly spotted and that wasn't going to be likely since they'd be flying through the air at a mid ranged altitude.

The speeder lurched forward leaving the marching B2's behind them. It drifted into the air, and hurriedly moved through the buildings. On the ground below they passed storm trooper patrols, while over head some LAATs and V-wings continued to scan the landscape. But with the signal out they just assumed the speeder on their sensors was one of their own. Varrin had the imperial speeder moving very quickly until it finally came up to the outer wall of the city. Varrin chose a spot where there was no road, so they wouldn't have to deal with a checkpoint.

"Deactivate the signal 55." Varrin said as the passed over the wall.

The droid tapped the front console and their signal stopped transmitting. They'd stop showing up on the Imperial sensor grid at that point, and the patrols were isolated to the city. If they needed to they could turn it back on, but they were traveling so quickly they were probably safe.

Suddenly there was voice coming from the back.

"W-where are we." It was Diyog, who was slowly regaining consciousness.

"Hey, look who's finally awake." Enthaz said excited, since it was some of the only good news he'd received in a while.

"We're on a speeder heading east out of Synal." Varrin said smiling looking back, but still keeping his eyes forward.

"Are… we going…. home?" She was obviously very dizzy and not entirely in a good state of mind.

"Yup." Varrin replied. "We're goin' home." He said masking his own disappointment with the way things had turned out.


	10. A Year In The Darkness

_"After a year I thought we'd have found a way to get things working again. That we'd have gotten the support back and would be back into full swing. I never would have thought a year in the darkness after the droids shut down we'd just be trying to keep the pilot light on." - Varrin Torrik_

**- Time In Tarannor System – 1 day**

**- Time After Droid Shut Down – 392 days**

The sun was setting on the city of Narhet, a wide urban sprawl which stretched across the mountainous world of Tarannor. It was a mining world primarily and the city served as the planets primary trade hub. The world didn't manufacture many of its own materials, instead just concentrating on extracting mineral ore and shipping it around the galaxy. Narhet had a massive space port, which was busy every minute of every day.

A taxi came down from one of the active skylanes to the ground where a line of small businesses were. People walked around on the streets, and the automated speeder skillfully placed itself where no one was standing. It opened up and out from the vehicle stepped Varrin Torrik. He had his E-5 blaster rifle slung over his shoulder. He did not carry his E-5 rocket launcher however as that would most definitely attract too much attention.

He looked a bit different then had a year earlier. His hair was cut shorter, and his face seemed slightly more aged as a result of the stress of the last year. Jumping from one hopeless battle to another wasn't most people's idea of living but that was Varrin's life. His armor was different. Rather then a dark blue uniform with durasteel plates, he now wore a dark green set of armor made up duraplast. His pants were a grayish black and he wore a long coat which matched the color. It was a military style long coat with many pockets that was thick and warm. The bottom of it was torn up a bit, and there were scuffs on it which showed his time in battle.

"Hurry up, 55." Varrin ordered, turning to see his B1 Battledroid exiting the vehicle behind him.

55 looked different as well. His paint was a darker red-dust brown, but it was fairly scuffed on his left arm. A bandolier stretched across his chest holding many pockets full of different munitions and powercells. A large bag was on his left side. Next to his back antenna pack there now was a small satellite dish that clearly wasn't standard. He too carried an E-5 blaster rifle, but on his back there was a long sniper rifle as well.

"You're not carrying all the equipment, sir." 55 pointed out regarding his speed.

"We're already runnin' a bit late." Varrin said back. "Don't waste any more time on stupid excuses." Varrin knew that it wasn't eating up any more time the discussion, but he didn't care.

The two them walked forward toward the building directly in front of them. It was a cantina without a doubt since it had a picture of a man in a robe drinking heavily on the hologram in front. The words read "The Drunken Monk" just beneath it. It was a play on the planets very large population of Umalists, a religious cult that lived primarily in isolation deep in the mountains.

The door slid open, and immediately there was a smell of people smoking tubac and a layer of noise. It wasn't very large, but they managed to fit quite a few people inside. Tables lined the walls, and the bar stretched out through the center of the room. It had several droids working as servers, and one large human who was managing the bar itself. It was a very diverse place as far as species went, and even though Varrin and 55 walked into the building heavily armed, no one took the slightest notice of it.

Varrin scanned the room and found who he was looking for just off at the side of the room. The two people there seemed to notice him quickly too, but Varrin managed to get the words out first.

"Daggs Orno and Ganas Bisgo." Varrin called out, immediately walking over to the two people.

A man with similar clothing to Varrin stood up. His was a straight Confederate Uniform, like the one Varrin used to wear. Dark blue from top to bottom with durasteel plates, and a long dark coat wrapped around him. He had a rifle as well that looked very similar to Varrin's. It however was a new E-11 blaster rifle, the weapon that was phasing out other rifles for the Empire. They were very powerful weapons that punched a little harder then the E-5. He had scruffy stubble all over his face and short brown hair.

"Vung-tha" Daggs swore at Varrin. "Why are you still walking around with that droid?" Daggs said looking at 55 who was approaching him as well.

Varrin smiled. "Any droid is better then being caught dead with a Gungan." Varrin pointed over at Ganas. "At least that's what the rest of the galaxy thinks."

"Hey!" Ganas chimed in. "Yousa don'ta be knowin' what da resta da galaxy be tinkin'" Ganas defended. "If ya did, you'sa wouldn't be standin' on dis planet, knowin' everyone tink you're a… religiousy crazy." Ganas joked regarding the association of the planet with religious fanatics.

Ganas Bisgo wasn't the typical Gungan. He dressed in their traditional garb, but he had Gungan warrior tattoos lining both of his arms. He also visibly had a large blaster pistol holstered at his front. He was tall like all of his people and had a long bill. But he had scars on his face, and a set of beast teeth dangling on a necklace at his front. In his hand there was a bottle, which he consistently drank from.

Unlike most of his people, he had a strong support for the Separatist movement. He had been a young warrior during the time of the Naboo crisis, but he didn't think the Trade Federation Invasion mattered. He didn't like the Naboo, and when the peace offering came, he was among the minority that didn't like it. He also didn't know why they Gungans were the only one fighting on the Battle of Grassy Plains. He didn't like that they were just used as a distraction, and when the CIS started taking on soldiers he volunteered hoping that they would eventually rid his homeworld of the Naboo. Unfortunately that day still had not come.

"That may be true, but I think being on the CIS side of the line shows that we don't have much knowledge, or at least concern, about what the galaxy thinks" Varrin pointed out.

He came over and sat down next to where they were sitting at the bar. It was obvious that none of them had any reason to worry about flaunting there allegiance on that planet. The Empire hadn't quite stretched that far yet, and it was a heavy smugglers planet. Most people didn't care about which side of the clone wars people were on in a place like that.

"Now when was the last time we saw you." Daggs asked. "Ganas and I were trying to figure it out. He says it was at Yazryn II, but I said that was too long back, and it had to have been at the Fifth battle of Maverylla." Daggs looked over at Varrin wondering if he could clarify.

"He's right, it was Yazryn II." Varrin answered, knocking on the bar getting one of the droids attention. He held up three fingers, signifying the drink. The droid went off to get it immediately.

"Are you sure? I coulda sworn it was Mav-5?" Daggs said giving the battles nickname.

"We weren't at the Fifth Battle of Maverylla." 55 pointed out. He just sat on one of the barstools, but couldn't drink anything so he just listened.

"Well we were there." Varrin elaborated. "The Meridian Battlegroup I mean. But we were fighting on the moon, trying to disable the communication station there."

"That didn't go well." 55 followed up.

"Ya, they hammered us with fighters on the way down, so we landed with half the expected force. Worst part was most of the demolition crew were killed the second they touched the ground." The droid finally arrived with Varrin's drink, a tall glass filled with a red liquid. "We spent most of the battle just trying to get out of the station." Varrin laughed.

"Oh, ok, ok." Daggs nodded. "I guess I just remember the Meridian being there." He agreed. Daggs had been in as many battles as Varrin, and when it came to what other people did it was hard to remember exactly what happened.

"Hows te Meridian-group doin'. Itsa still flyin'?" Ganas asked taking a drink from the bottle in his hand.

"… Eh… not really." Varrin responded with discontent. "You heard about Farloria right?" He asked fairly certain they had heard.

"Course we did." Daggs responded lighting the end of his tubac stick. "We're just glad we weren't there." He began to puff on the end of it.

"Well once the Empire showed up, we were caught completely with our pants down." Varrin began to explain taking a drink from the glass in front of him. "They decimated those of us on the ground while they pelted the fleet. The Meridian was the main target, and they smashed it all to hell – it's hard to call it the "Meridian Battlegroup" when the Meridian is destroyed." Varrin leaned forward against the bar. "We managed to get out of the city and link up with a few others in the group, and we got a distress call out to the only remaining ship… a Recusant-class light destroyer that was beat to hell."

"Oh man." Daggs said

"Bu-la todo" Ganas shook his head.

They both knew that a Recusant wasn't the most ideal ship for that sort of thing since they were fairly slow, fragile, and cramped.

"At least we made it out." 55 said, grateful they'd survived.

"Yup, a "walk away win" I say." Varrin gave the phrase that was common for CIS remnant forces. The idea was as long as some of them got away, they'd won.

They took a moment to agree to those ideas. They always did, and they took a moment to drink on that idea of a victory. It was a rather poor idea as far as military strategy went, but it was what they were reduced to.

"Maybe it's time for you guys to come over to Yizaak's fleet?" Daggs offered taking a puff on his tubac stick.

"Frell'd on four." Varrin cursed. "Are you both still flying with that dirty bird?"

Daggs shook his head smiling. "Hey, we're doing better then ever." Daggs suggested. "We've got twenty ships in the fleet, and one of thems a Lucrehulk." Daggs mentioned the massive circular Confederate Warship. "Word is we'll be getting another one soon enough."

Though it was a very powerful battlegroup that Daggs described, Varrin knew that their tactics ran very counter to what Varrin himself was used to and preferred.

"Look, I think it's great that the guy got rich and decided to buy himself a fleet to fight the good fight, but I'm fighting a war Daggs, not playing guerilla pirates. If I wanted to do that I'd sign on with Black Sun, they at least know how to do it right." Varrin joked about how the group that Daggs and Ganas fought for operated.

"De Clone Wars is overs Varrins." Ganas . "Yousa gotta be acceptin' dat eventuallies"

"Hey, I know of… " Varrin paused to count. "at least seven fleets still in operation, and dozens of worlds who haven't submitted." Varrin moved his glass over. "War can't be over if they haven't received a full surrender."

"They got one out of the Trade Federation." 55 replied, seeming to agree with Daggs and Ganas.

"Shut up, 55, you're a battledroid, not a surrender-bot" Varrin jabbed back at 55.

Even as Varrin argued the CIS wasn't dead, it had been a year since the full droid shutdown. The Trade Federation fleets were completely destroyed and the corporation imperialized. The rest of the major corporations were also collapsing, and they didn't truly have the support of the worlds that Varrin mentioned hadn't submitted.

"Those planets on the outer rim don't support the Confederacy Varrin. They just don't want to be part of the Empire." Daggs said scratching his stubble. "Besides, fighting the way you guys fight is what's causing us to lose anyway."

"At least what we're doing is fighting." Varrin answered back. "What Yizaak's doing is gathering a massive army, and then sending ten men at a time to sabotage an Imperial installation."

"Maybe it's not what we're used to, but it's what we can do. Perhaps one day we can go back to full scale fighting, but for now, we just gotta keep the pilot light on and save our strength till that day comes." Daggs explained.

"Maybe, but I'll wait till the situations a bit more hopeless before I allow myself to just be called 'a rebel." Varrin smiled as he said that.

"Da way tings is goin' Varrins, yousa won't be waitin' too long." Ganas took another drink from his bottle as he finished.

With that the group changed the subject to something more light hearted and remained in the bar for hours telling funny stories from the past and musings about a brighter future.


	11. Jedi And Jailbreaks

_"I'm nothing if not afraid of change. All my life I had trouble dealing with times that were different. The CIS was the only change I really took too well. After a year of being a CIS Remnant I was finally coming around to the change of tactics. But in regards to some changes… well let's just say I don't think I'll ever feel right saying Jedi Jailbreak._

**-Time in Javor'ka System – 13 Minutes**

**- Time After Droid Shut Down – 432 days**

"Move down, Daggs, I don't got much cover here!" Varrin yelled as he fired his E-5 blaster rifle down the sterile hallway.

"I was gonna tell you the same thing!" Daggs yelled back, firing a longer blaster rifle over the short box they'd kicked over that they were using for cover.

"At least you have cover!" said 55, in the high pitched monotone of a B1 battledroid. He too fired down the hallway with an E-5 blaster rifle not behind cover at all.

"Yousa needs be shuttin' up, droid!" Ganas spat back, firing only his S-5 heavy Naboo blaster pistol as his long Gungan ears flopped. "Meesa coulds be figurin' to use 'you' for de covers!" The Gungan didn't look at the droid; he just kept his threat where it was as he stood in the small crevice of a door.

On the other end of the short hallway opposing the group were a pair of newly christened Imperial Stormtroopers, wearing the fancy new armor that Imperial troops were issued. They had no cover unlike the Separatist Holdouts in front of them that were blaring fire at them. Streaks of red and green flew across the hallway, but the two Stormtroopers were gunned down within moments.

They were standing in the hallway of a small Tartan-class Patrol Cruiser, which had been retrofitted to act as a prison transport ship. The tiny vessel was more then enough to fend off a standard pirate ambush and they couldn't think of a reason someone would be trying to assault them in the Mid-Rim. They did not expect a Confederate Munificent-Class frigate to ambush them as they came out of hyperspace to adjust course. The large frigate was more then enough to overpower the small ship, but rather then destroy it outright, the frigate sent a large boarding party. They were after the prisoners, looking to recruit them. They had no way of knowing how many there would be, but the pickings were easy enough.

Taking a breath, Varrin stood up. He had his E-60R Missile Launcher on his back, but didn't think there would be much cause to use it. The ship had a total crew of 100, mixed between crewmen and soldiers. The CIS force however was close to 300. Though it was primarily droids in that confined space there numbers were completely overwhelming. They already had the ships bridge under their control, and they were finishing off seizure of the rest of the ship.

"The way you guys fight makes me regret joinin' Yizaak's group." Varrin said. They acted simply as raiders, not quite the full line tactics Varrin was accustomed too.

"At least we'sa is winnin'" Ganas said stepping out from the doorway, his heavy blaster pistol still pointed forward.

"Ya, you should quite complainin' Varrin." Daggs said in his scratchy voice, lighting up his Tubac stick that was hanging out of his mouth. The smoke began to rise up from the end of it. "Its better then mass casualties and 'no' win that you guys are used to." He began to walk forward leading the group down the hallway.

"Come on 55, forward up" Varrin ordered his B1 Battledroid as he himself moved up behind Daggs.

The group proceeded further down the hallway. They were working their way towards an isolated prison cell, which was much more thoroughly locked then the main cell block. The vessel scans showed that it was small, and likely only held a few people. But it was a target that required the delicacy of some of the best boarders onboard the ship, and so Daggs led the group at it alone. They were more then enough to handle all they'd come across up until that point.

"How much farther is it gonna be 55?" Daggs asked, though not bothering to look back and face the droid.

55's increased sensor range let him get a full view of the ship around him. At that point 55 hardly qualified as a B1 battledroid. Though he possessed the outer shell of one, he had pilot, advanced combat, and further sensor programming put into him. He also had slightly thicker armor. He was still relatively fragile, but he could at least operate more like a sentient being at that point.

"Just off the right. My scans show two more life forms beyond the turn." 55 recited.

"More guards." Daggs said aloud, knowing the troopers were already aware they were coming.

"Not to worry." Varrin said pulling up a thermal detonator off of his belt "That's what these are for."

As they got to the end of the hall, Varrin activated the detonator and tossed it down the hall. It bounced, and there was a blaster shot down the hall which let them know their assumption was correct.

"Look out!" One voice yelled through the muffle of the trooper mask.

"A Detonator! A second voice yelled.

BOOM!

It was already too late by the time the two troopers figured out what they device was. They likely weren't expecting to have explosives like that used, especially inside a ship. But Confederate war doctrine didn't particularly stress keeping enemy equipment intact for future use.

Ganas looked down the hallway, blaster ready. On the ground at the end of the hallway there were two Stormtroopers lying dead. Their armor was scorched badly.

"Alls clear." Ganas said coming around the corner, the rest following behind him.

"You know Varrin, we do wanna keep this ship intact." Daggs said pulling his tubac stick out of his mouth, letting out a puff of smoke as he spoke.

"That's why I only used the detonator, and not this." Varrin set patting the Missile Launcher on his back.

"Meesa tinkin' me's agrees wit Varrins." Ganas started.

"See Daggs, even the Gungan agrees." Varrin suggested smugly.

"No." Ganas corrected. "Ims tinkin' we's regrettin' you joinin' dis group." The Gungan concluded smiling.

Daggs started laughing in a hard cackle. "Ya, he'll come around Ganas." He said reassuringly. "Varrin's just spent too much time with brainless droids."

"Hey!" 55 said sounding annoyed. "My upgraded programming gives got twice the brain capacity you have." The droid said sounding confident.

"Shut up, 55." Varrin gave his usual directive to the droid. "I just told you that to keep the astromechs off your back."

Even though Varrin liked the droid a lot, he still treated it with a certain degree of subservience to himself.

"Yes, sir." 55 conceded, giving a light robotic sigh.

The group stopped as they came before the large door the two Stormtroopers were guarding. It was obviously fairly thick, and seemed difficult to access. Whoever was inside of a cell like that must have done something very bad.

"Alright Ganas, your on." Daggs said putting the tubac stick back in his mouth. He turned around to face the hallway behind them, ensuring no one was coming.

Varrin lean back against the hallway as Ganas stepped forward. The Gungan took a small metallic box from his side bag and began to hack into the door. They all knew how to do things like that to certain degree, but none of them were as good at it as Ganas.

"You got a fix on what's in there, 55?" Varrin asked, lowering his E-5 blaster rifle towards the ground.

"My scanners can't breach the door." 55 replied, still standing with his weapon up. "The door is too thick."

"Huh." Varrin muttered crossing his arms, and biting his upper lip lightly. "What do you think they got in here? An Acklay?" He asked jokingly.

"Two Acklay meesa tinkin'." Ganas replied judging by the heavy nature of the door.

Suddenly there was a beep, and a hiss.

"Got it!" Ganas called out, stepping back and drawing his weapon.

The others all moved their weapons forward, not sure if whatever was behind the door was going to be chained up or not. They were prepared for dangerous criminals to come charging at them, but none of them set their weapons to stun. They were ready to kill if they had to.

The door slid open, and a room that was roughly eight feet square was revealed to them. It was well lit, and metallic all around, which matched the hallway they came from. But to their surprise at the other end of the room, instead of there being several people, there was just one. And to their surprise it was a younger human woman who had her feet and hand locked in durasteel clamps. She wore what looked like normal looking clothing, and her hair was considerably short and brown.

"Well." Daggs said lowering his weapon. "You must be some kind of criminal to be locked up like this."

The women looked them all over, with a look that showed confusion and a hint of fear.

"Who are you?" She asked, seemingly concerned about what was happening.

"You first." Varrin demanded lowering his weapon as well.

"I'm Tara Herrand." The woman answered. She couldn't have been older then twenty.

"Well Tara… why are you locked up this tight?" Daggs asked, not sure if he wanted to release her just yet as he determined her value.

"I…" She hesitated. "Got in a fight with some of the other prisoners, so they locked me in here." She said.

"Bantha shavit!" Varrin called out, suggesting she was bluffing. "She's some kinda spice-lords daughter or somethin'." To Varrin there was no way she was beating down the other prisoners, as she looked too frail.

"Seems a bit hard to believe they'd put you in here." Daggs admitted looking at her.

"No it's the…" Tara tried to respond but Daggs turned away putting his finger to his ear.

All four of them could hear the communication except for the girl against the wall.

"Hey guys!" A voice called out. "You'll never guess what we found locked up in their armory?"

Varrin put his finger to his ear. "Was it that Wookiee holoset you always wanted?" Varrin joked bitterly towards the soldier on the other.

"Shut up, Varrin." Daggs smiled shaking his head. "What'd you find Zhaf?" Daggs asked.

"A lightsaber!" The voice on the other end said.

"What!? Really!?" Daggs said ripping the tubac stick out of his mouth.

"Yeah, really! It's orange and works and everything!" The soldier on the other end of the communication continued sounding excited. "Maybe the Stormtroopers are training with em now."

Varrin shook his head. "More likely they got a Jedi locked…"

Varrin suddenly stopped and looked over at Daggs and Ganas, seeing the expressions on their faces they both realized the same thing he did all at once.

"Holy Gussa!" Ganas expelled.

"Frell!" Varrin spat shocked. "She's a Jedi!"

Locked up with her limbs bound before them was the first Jedi that any of them had ever seen up that close. And out of simple reflex Varrin, Ganas, and 55 all raised their weapons at her.

"A Jedi!?" 55 asked, sounding shocked even through his monotone. "Do we blast her, sir!?"

"Wait!" Daggs said, his tubac stick dropped to the ground in front of them.

"Come on Daggs, let's blast her and get outa here!" Varrin said letting loose his old fears of the Jedi. It was one thing to be calm when talking about them in passing, but to be in front of one of them was terrifying even if she was locked up.

"We gotta take her with us." Daggs said looking at Varrin.

"What!?" Varrin couldn't believe his ears. "So what? She can cut us up, and throw us around the room?" Varrin was horrified with the idea.

"Please!" The women begged "I don't even know who you are." The bound women said.

"Shut up! Shut up Jedi!" Varrin spat back.

"We gotta take her with us, Varrin." Daggs insisted. "She's the most valuable thing on the ship."

"D-don't say my name in front of the Jedi!" Varrin demanded "She could melt my brain or somethin'" He really didn't know what the extent of Jedi powers were, but he knew to be afraid of them.

"Ganas, get her down." Daggs ordered to the Gungan.

The Gungans didn't seem to like the idea, but he released her hands from the binders on the wall.

Varrin still looked terrified as she was released. "I don't like this Daggs, I don't this at all."

"Come on, we gotta get back to the shuttle now!" Daggs said starting to run, assuming the others would follow, but only Ganas did so.

The women hesitated, as did Varrin and 55. The women seemed extremely confused but somewhat less frightened.

"Wait!" She called out, but looked over at Varrin and the battledroid, who still looked like they were looking at a ghost. "Who are you people?" She asked still confused.

Varrin was starting to settle down slightly, but was still in shock. "Us?" He echoed. "We're the Confederacy of Independent Systems." Varrin's answer seemed almost as strange her saying she was a Jedi. "Now… come on." He said said beckoning her forward with his blaster rifle.

The group began to move forward quickly down the hallway, not sure what the strange prisoner showed for their now most uncertain future.


End file.
